National Databases: A vision of madness
Ian Parker, a writer new to me, has an excellent story on the dangers of the database state that ends with:
In a free society, the rights and laws protect the individual from the government. In a dictatorship, the rights and laws protect the government from the people.
So very true. We’ve written at length here in the past about the dangers of the National Identity Register, but as Ian says:
I can hear Mr Blair protesting now that this is not what all these laws are for, but Mr Blair, please understand, THIS IS HOW THEY WILL BE APPLIED, if not in a dictatorial regime, certainly one in which it is very easy to hit all your targets when the laws are all on your side.
(via)
