RMS: « The UK government plans to record all phone calls, all emails, and all web browsing.
This is to "fight crime", but crime is a minor danger compared with that of an all-powerful all-seeing state. When the government declares suspicion grounds to imprison someone, everyone has a valid reason to conceal his activities from the state. »
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motters
16 years 7 weeks 2 hours 35 min ago
The state knows best
This is the largely unseen and unrecognized backdrop to everyday life. Within the last five years a blanket of soviet style mass surveillance has descended upon the population, with almost no public debate on the issue. The state knows best and will protect you from real or perceived harm by monitoring your every electronic move.
Initially this begins with detection of obvious crimes, but as time goes on what qualifies as "harm" or "a crime" becomes increasingly broad as more and more details about the lives of individuals become available for analysis. Eventually prevention of harm comes to include the acquisition of information which the state doesn't want you to know (such as suppression of information about democracy in China).