If you’ve got nothing to hide, why worry about warrantless mass surveillance? One reason among many: The people who have access to your private communications may not have your—or your child’s—best interest at heart.

NextGov reports that officials at a recent Intelligence and National Security Alliance symposium in Chantilly, Virginia discussed the widespread storage of child pornography on NSA and other military computer systems. Daniel Payne, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Service, reportedly said that “the amount of child porn [he sees on government devices] is just unbelievable.” An NSA official agreed, saying “what people do is amazing.”

It’s often difficult for us to pinpoint direct, personal harms from warrantless dragnet spying. Sure, policies like those established after 9/11 may threaten democratic, open society, freedom of speech, and due process. But for many of us, drawing a direct line between the erosion of democratic norms and our day-to-day lives can be challenging, if not impossible. It’s not hard, on the other hand, to imagine a government employee using his access to warrantless surveillance data to fish for bath-time photos of our naked children. 

Don’t forget: The surveillance systems Snowden exposed may seem too big to comprehend, but the individual people behind them are just as real (and flawed) as you or me. According to these officials and older reports, sexual abuse of children is rampant in the military and intelligence worlds. That’s yet one more reason why we shouldn’t ever give government institutions and the people who run them nearly limitless power to exercise in the dark.