Comment Re:Why bother? (Score 1) 516
A simple search into the archived information about a "difficult individual" could produce endless ways to force silence. This is a problem for political opposition, whistleblowers, etc.
The existence of an information database like that is a foothold for corruption and abuse - It's a total waste of money if it's not used in any way. In how many ways can you use a database containing communication of private citizens?
The first thing that comes in mind is that you can discriminate someone with it.
Think of the Facebook problems as analogous. All that information about different individuals makes for an interesting communication tool, which then became a nightmare when a public institution used it for discriminative purposes. That means the school that just recently expelled students (or otherwise penalized them) because of information found on their Facebook pages.
A government database has a couple points to keep in mind: The secrecy and security hinted in the linked article would mean that without authorization by the NSA you couldn't get confirmation about what information was in the database concerning yourself. Of course, there would be no way to remove information from the database, either. A simple and attractive option for corruption would be to sell database queries to companies seeking personal details of their employees, all in the name of "driving the economy forward."
The existence of an information database like that is a foothold for corruption and abuse - It's a total waste of money if it's not used in any way. In how many ways can you use a database containing communication of private citizens?
The first thing that comes in mind is that you can discriminate someone with it.
Think of the Facebook problems as analogous. All that information about different individuals makes for an interesting communication tool, which then became a nightmare when a public institution used it for discriminative purposes. That means the school that just recently expelled students (or otherwise penalized them) because of information found on their Facebook pages.
A government database has a couple points to keep in mind: The secrecy and security hinted in the linked article would mean that without authorization by the NSA you couldn't get confirmation about what information was in the database concerning yourself. Of course, there would be no way to remove information from the database, either. A simple and attractive option for corruption would be to sell database queries to companies seeking personal details of their employees, all in the name of "driving the economy forward."
