What is the impact of electronic surveillance on privacy?

Further on at p. 289 C.R.R., p. 11 C.C.C., La Forest J. adopted Douglas J.’s dissenting comments in United States v. White, 401 U.S. 745 (1971) at p. 756 where he stated: “Electronic surveillance is the greatest leveller of human privacy ever known” and went on to add: If the state may arbitrarily record and transmit our private communications, it is no longer possible to strike an appropriate balance tween the right of the individual to be left alone and the right of the state to intrude on privacy in the furtherance of its gods, notably the need to investigate and combat crime.