This Is Data Retention.

Would You Give It To Any Future Government?

A new visualization of cellphone location data surfaced on Engadget. While it was hailed as a cool visualization of location, it is something more: it is an insight into the powers taken by European governments by means of the Data Retention Directive.Would you want the Police to be able to see your movements and the movements of all of your friends like this? Would you want the Police under any future government and set of laws to be able to track and correlate how you and your friends move, in real time and in recorded history, like this?

Many people dismiss Data Retention with the “I have nothing to hide” shrug. That is dangerous, careless and ignorant of everything history has to teach us. If the former East European governments had had this kind of visualization on their dissidents, they would still be around. The governments, that is, not necessarily the dissidents.

via This Is Data Retention. Would You Give It To Any Future Government? – Falkvinge on Infopolicy.