Talking to the walls, as if you were home...

What if the NSA or other instances would decide to wiretap all new or renovated houses - how long would it take before anyone would notice? When you move to a new house, you unlikely turn upside down every square inch of every surface, open the stoves and walls and air conditioners just to make sure there are no bugs ... instead of wiretapping what people say on the phone, wouldn't it be more efficient to spy what the people say in the peace of their home?

Yes, the privacy has value. And if everyone would be observed long enough, there would probably be something fishy enough to investigate. Someone writing a letter to their lover, keeping their room in a suspicious order, having a too weird collection of not Republican approved items, talking too much to their family or friends outside the country...

The only good why this wouldn't happen is probably that there are a lot of people involved in construction. If there was a central system for approving the houses, with a board of people able to circle in the house for half an hour, it could be still easy to technically achieve. What would be the advantages of listening to everyone is beyond me, but since there are millions of phones wiretapped without warrant, why not wiretap everyone at their own homes, and in public places too? That way it wouldn't even matter if you changed your phone numbers.

"What do you have to hide?" would be as valid as on those other two articles by Schneier. Instead, why do you / they want to spy "observe" everyone for the "security's" sake?