Nothing has changed in decades regarding this. People just like to pretend something new is happening, because they're extremely desperate to proclaim a fundamental turning / ending of the US (which is why every single event brings out those claims: this time is different! America will never recover from this! etc).

US tech companies were previously forced into compliance with PRISM or threatened with destruction (see: escalating fines to infinity against Yahoo, forcing their eventual compliance).

You know what's new? This administration is doing out in the open what used to go on quietly.

> Nothing has changed

> You know what's new? This administration is doing out in the open what used to go on quietly.

So this administration has got bold and the behaviour has become overt.