Keeping An Eye On You

The Economist has a second article in its series on civil liberties. This one looks at how new technology is changing the way western democracies, particularly the U.S. and U.K., collect and use data from citizens. Surveillance may not seem so bad when you think about your safety. You’re not a criminal, right? But when you see every method or proposed idea of data collection and by both governments and corporations, it makes you think about how slippery this Orwellian slope is getting:

“..electronic surveillance has not yet had a big impact on most people's lives, other than (usually) making it easier to deal with officialdom. But with the collection and [centralization] of such vast amounts of data, the potential for abuse is huge and the safeguards paltry.”

The full article is here.