Perhaps when it is committed by representatives of a Government, rather than an individual. Witness the story of Lauri Love, a 28 year old man from Suffolk, told here on the BBC, versus today’s reports that GCHQ has been collecting Yahoo Messenger videos.
Naturally, one thinks of George Orwell. What prescience he showed back in 1948 when writing of “Big Brother”. If he wasn’t then, he sure is now.