You don&#x27;t even have to leave the US -  COINTELPRO is a great example of this. In the 50s and 60 the FBI used surveillance data of questionable legality to target a number of groups deemed &quot;undesirable&quot;. This included trying to convince Nobel peace prize winner Martin Luther King Jr to literally <i>kill himself</i> via harassing anonymous letters that threatened the release of embarrassing personal details.<p>Here&#x27;s a key quote from the letter: &quot;No person can overcome the facts, no even a fraud like yourself. Lend your sexually psychotic ear to the enclosure. You will find yourself and in all your dirt, filth, evil and moronic talk exposed on the record for all time. . . . Listen to yourself, you filthy, abnormal animal. You are on the record.&quot;<p>Nice, eh? When that failed, his marriage was attacked instead, and anonymous audio recordings (again, questionable legality) were sent to his wife. This continued in various forms up to MLK jr&#x27;s eventual assassination.<p>You don&#x27;t even need the entire government to be corrupt and malicious - a single bad department or group can cause an enormous amount of damage, which won&#x27;t be found out about until decades later (if at all!).<p>Edit: Source <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;deeplinks&#x2F;2014&#x2F;11&#x2F;fbis-suicide-letter-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-and-dangers-unchecked-surveillance" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;deeplinks&#x2F;2014&#x2F;11&#x2F;fbis-suicide-letter-dr...</a>