Again: I have no problems with companies collecting data, within the limits of contracts and applicable laws. I do have a problem with government buying/collecting such data on a wholesale basis, rather than on specific individuals. Basically, government should be MORE restricted than private industry — just because someone has the data, doesn’t mean that it should automagically be available to government.
Government may only be mining it looking for patterns AS A RULE. However, NSA, CIA, FBI, who the fuck knows who else have the raw data as well. Would it be a stretch that it could be used for blackmail of specific individuals? “Senator Smith, I see you’re not so keen on voting for the new defense appropriation bill. You’re a married man — why did you call your ex-intern at 3 am, repeatedly for six months…? Sure you don’t want to change your vote?”
Since Congressional votes are often very close, it would take a subversion of only a few % of legislators, journalists, etc, for the three-letter agencies to grab close to absolute power covertly — basically a bloodless coup d’etat.
I took some street photos on my iPhone. The data is there. It contains photos of public places. Would you be OK with making all photos taken on smart phones with GPS coordinates of public places available to the FBI or NSA?
Solving potential crimes isn’t a good excuse. I personally think that even a few thousand deaths from terrorism is a fair price for living in a free society. We accept deaths from gun violence as the price of the 2nd. Why not accept terrorist deaths as the price of the 4th?
Lastly, I hope that cars do get GPS black boxes (though there’s been push back against it from many sides). Should be a hell of a lucrative market selling ways to circumvent the bloody things to “businessmen” and people who are fucking someone other than their lawful spouse.
