wow prescient, look at the date: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2011 11:42:41 -0600 From: Roger Baker Subject: Recording Everything: Digital Storage as an Enabler of Authoritarian Governments http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2011/1214_digital_storage_… Conclusions Declining storage costs will soon make it practical for authoritarian governments  to create permanent digital archives of the data gathered from pervasive  surveillance systems. In countries where there is no meaningful public debate on  privacy, there is no reason to expect governments not to fully exploit the ability to  build databases containing every phone conversation, location data for almost  every person and vehicle, and video from every public space in an entire country.  This will greatly expand the ability of repressive regimes to perform surveillance  of opponents and to anticipate and react to unrest. In addition, the awareness  among the populace of pervasive surveillance will reduce the willingness of people  to engage in dissent.  The coming era of ubiquitous surveillance in authoritarian countries has  important implications for American foreign policy. Strategies for engaging with  these countries will benefit from specific consideration of the presence, growth and  increasing impact of these enormous digital databases. This will impact human  rights, trade, export control, intellectual property security, and the operation of  multinational businesses with in-country facilities, subsidiaries, or subcontractors. Finally, the use by authoritarian governments of systems that record  everything in the complete absence of privacy considerations will lead to a long list  of other unforeseen and generally negative consequences. Unfortunately, the  residents of those countries, as well as the rest of us, will soon start to find out just  what those consequences are