[grey-area]

I'm not surprised by this news at all. The technical means have been there for years and years.

Have you thought through the implications of this? To me capturing and storing all the information we generate is really dangerous, and there's no way I'd want a log of everything in my life to be accessible to my secret service, my government, police, and the secret services of anyone they might wish to share it with (in particular the NSA) in secret and without my permission.

You've carefully avoided stating an opinion on these actions of our security services, but presented it as a fait accompli that we may as well just live with. I disagree. They've lied to us about what they were collecting (everything) and lied to us about what it is for (terror). I see no reason to trust any assurances or controls which are introduced on access, and the only way to stop abuse is to stop collection.

It appears they're not yet at the point where they can store all information indefinitely, but that point will arrive soon, and I think we should stop them before it does. I don't even trust the current politicians and police with this information on every citizen, let alone any conceivable politician who might come to power in the next few centuries.

IMHO we should have strong protections banning outright the collection and collation of this sort of material except where there are reasons to be believe someone is a serious criminal (violence, fraud, terror), with judicial oversight, for a limited time, with the data deleted after the trial. Just as the police are not allowed to demand DNA samples from entire populations in order to solve a crime, security services should not be allowed to store our every move and thought in the name of defending liberty, it makes a mockery of the concepts they claim to be protecting, and is extremely dangerous in the long term.

[jgrahamc]

You've carefully avoided stating an opinion on these actions of our security services, but presented it as a fait accompli that we may as well just live with

You want my opinion? I agree: it's very dangerous for the state to have detailed information about an individual's life. The potential for abuse is enormous.

[grey-area]

Thank you. I find that information far more interesting than whether you are surprised by surveillance, but perhaps that's just me.

[eksith]

The only winning move is not to play. And before you complain this is impossible, for the record, Stallman has been doing the same for years. He doesn't own a cellphone. Think about that for a moment; mull over the implications.

He's been saying for years that the allure of convenience is a mirage in terms of privacy. Is he doing something illegal? No, I think it's safe to say not. Most likely, neither are you.

So why do you continue to play?

[grey-area]

I think it'd be a shame to sacrifice all the utility of the Internet and telephone services because of mass surveillance. I'd rather sacrifice some of the capabilities of GCHQ and the NSA instead.