Lawrence Beck
Two thoughts. First, as Fog suggested, government snoops (and The Sun's) already were collecting this data. It's just that they finally owned up to doing so. Second, I take comfort in believing that they now are receiving so much of this garbage that they haven't time, computer power or manpower to process all of it. Provided you aren't Muslim, you should be able to remain invisible.
2012-04-07

countryfog
"The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed--would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper--the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it." (Orwell, "1984")

I have no doubt my own government does no less. There can be no presumption of privacy anymore. Technology can enable both great good and great evil, and great paranoia on the part of our governments. There must be a line between preventing evil and protecting privacy . . . deciding where that line is will newly define "freedom" in the 21st century.
2012-04-02