Website review: BBC NEWS | Technology | Google data...
penman2 discovered this in Liberties/Rights
•1 reviews since Jan 20, 2006
liberties
•news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4631924.stm
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penman2 discovered 31 months ago
I'm sure that most people are now aware of this, but a great deal of information can be handed to Governments from ISPs and online e-mail services, to which is now to be added Search Engines. As a principle in a free country, the Govt. should only require such information from individuals to fulfil its functions successfully, including the obligation to protect the rights of citizens of that country. In the determination to make their jobs easier, Governments have a tendency to overlook this last obligation. Does this matter ? If you have an administration that is completely benign, not power-seeking and/or corrupt, the answer is no. However, History tells us that this is most unlikely - even in the best Government administrations there will be a minority who will feel quite justified in abusing their position of trust to achieve personal aims. The potential for abuse is great, with individuals being targetted for not sharing the same views, philosophies and ambitions as those in power. You only have to look how this is manifest in certain Middle Eastern countries, China, Burma or Zimbabwe. We think that somehow we are immune from such abuses, but we are not. The freedoms that we enjoy have been hard fought for over centuries and if we are not vigilant, all that effort, sacrifice and blood will have been for nothing. We must all ask ourselves when enough is enough and then do something about it. Inaction is capitulation.
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