[privacy] The Economist: Learning to Live With Big Brother

[Paul Ferguson]

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Via The Economist (hat-tip: Bruce Schneier).

[snip]

It used to be easy to tell whether you were in a free country or a
dictatorship. In an old-time police state, the goons are everywhere, both
in person and through a web of informers that penetrates every workplace,
community and family. They glean whatever they can about your political
views, if you are careless enough to express them in public, and your
personal foibles.

What they fail to pick up in the café or canteen, they learn by reading
your letters or tapping your phone. The knowledge thus amassed is then
stored on millions of yellowing pieces of paper, typed or handwritten; from
an old-time dictator's viewpoint, exclusive access to these files is at
least as powerful an instrument of fear as any torture chamber. Only when a
regime falls will the files either be destroyed, or thrown open so people
can see which of their friends was an informer.

[snip]

Much more here:
http://economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9867324

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/