Comment by pnathan

I think that, in today's world, everyone, particularly public people of interest to other countries, should reasonably expect to have foreign countries gather information about them, up to and including spying.

For example, if I was doing important security research, I would fully expect to have the Russians, Chinese, Israelis, etc, looking into my work.

I don't believe the US is exceptional. I expect other countries to have interests in US citizens and to carry out their interests to advance their national interest.

This expectation is entirely separate from my opinion of the morality of said act.