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3 votes c/freepost Posted by devtrix — 3 votes, 3 commentsSource

‘18 will have to go a long way to beat ‘13 as the year of creepy tech. There’s surely nothing creepier than the compilation of Stasi-like dossiers on billions of humans.

NSA?

Yes, among all the other secret “services”. The UK made legal the compilation of Bulk Personal Datasets which they describe in a fact sheet (pdf):-

  • A bulk personal dataset (BPD) is a dataset containing information about a wide range of people,
    most of whom are not of interest to the security and intelligence agencies. Lists of people who have
    a passport or a licensed firearm are good examples of a BPD – they includes a large amount of
    personal information, the majority of which will relate to people who are not of security or
    intelligence interest.
  • Use of BPDs are an essential way for the security and intelligence agencies to focus their efforts
    on individuals who threaten our national security, by helping identify or establish links between
    such individuals.
  • The use of BPDs helps the agencies to focus on the individuals of concern – for example, terrorists
    and spies – and it removes the need to use more intrusive techniques against the innocent.

So, “let’s compile dossiers on as many people we can because there’s sure to be one or two guilty people among them”.