You never know what they might be good for. Personally, i'm for saving species more from a respect for the infinite complexity of nature. But if you want to convince a society ruled by corporate thinking, this is a strong example of why giving a crap about nature might be useful to the human race.

Are these things 100% correct? Any false positives would create tremendous hassles for drivers and waste police resources.

Any policy with regards to retention of information is easily changed in the future. No matter what duration they state they will find/create justification to increase it at some point in the future.

I wish my children will have the judgement to figure things out without someone looking over their shoulders constantly. Teaching a child to recognize dangers will do far more than watching over their shoulders constantly. Mommy and daddy aren't going to be there forever to hold your hand.

I hate the notion that there are innumerable predators stalking children on the internet. The actual number of molestations ect barely registers on the actual list of dangers to a child. But it's just so scary in a parents mind that they will ignore real threats to their childrens lives. Fear triumphs over reality again!

So many posts here are about not using facebook, not having facebook ect... This isn't an option for everyone. A huge portion of my friends use facebook with ages that range from pre-pubescent family members to senior citizens. I have friends around the world with whom I'd have minimal communication if not for facebook. Facebook allows me to keep touch with my friends and acquaintances abroad and at home in a single place that they will check often (too often). I deprive myself socially by not having an account. I don't care for it, but so many people I know use it I have no option. I just avoid saying or posting anything anything remotely incriminating.

They don't have to choose, it's a totalitarian country.

...are taking notes right now. They'd love to do this, and have been openly trying for a looong time.

No it isn't, stop being dismissive just because you don't want to participate.

By letting the carriers fuck up Android and completely take it over, and then playing the "it wouldn't be open if we told the carriers what to do with our software" card while users are left with locked and crippled phones that can't be upgraded without hacking or waiting for the carriers to care (they don't).

Yea they got their foot in the door, then flung it open and knocked over all their users.

I trust Google more than AT&T by far.

I doubt this is going to be a repeat of Windows, where a combination of massive marketshare and blatant negligence on the part of Microsoft led to an epidemic of worms.

But, there's also a very real threat, even on systems like iOS where users and even Apple assume that they have control of the platform, hackers prove them wrong constantly.

For instance a month or 2 back, jailbreakers were able to just visit a website through mobile safari and execute one exploit after another to compromise the entire system and install unapproved software like Cydia. That's a rare alignment of exploits, but who can really say it won't happen again via a malicious attacker?

That doesn't appear matter at the moment, so unless the law changes..

That isn't the same thing as assisting someone in stealing classified information.