The NSA is different from all your other examples, though. Finance, social gaming, ads and pretty much everything else is or can be regulated by the rule of law.
Intelligence agencies cannot.
There is no precedent of a surveillance society that managed to keep from turning authoritarian. Why should anybody assume that this time is different?
Of course intelligence agencies can, should be and are regulated by law. Sometimes they manipulate the law in their favour and sometimes they break it, but so do the other fields, most notably finance.
But more importantly, law and ethics are not the same thing. Merely not breaking the law does not make you an ethical person (and that's not the point of the law). Conversely, breaking some laws under some circumstances does not make you an unethical person.
The NSA is different from all your other examples, though. Finance, social gaming, ads and pretty much everything else is or can be regulated by the rule of law.
Intelligence agencies cannot.
There is no precedent of a surveillance society that managed to keep from turning authoritarian. Why should anybody assume that this time is different?