The saddest thing here is that the primary driver for this isn't true malevolence. There's not an underground of fascists working to make fascism happen.
This is just bureaucrats trying to cover their asses. Collecting more data is something that you can measure and point to.
Look we collected all of this!
Never mind the fact that the real difficulty is in distinguishing the noise from the signal.
And the more data you collect the harder that gets.
Never mind the fact the CIA was watching the 9/11 guys cross from Canada into the US, and called the FBI and told them.
Never mind that there were FBI agents who were trying to get someone's attention because they knew there was something fishy with all those guys taking flight lessons.
Never mind that clearly the problem was not a lack of data collection.
Never mind all that because doing the smart thing is hard and proving you're doing something by being smart is impossible.
But data collection is easy and it's easy to prove you're doing all you can.
Rubbish at keeping personal data secure. (see: lots of poorly handled data stories recently)
Rubbish at not "misusing" legislation. (Last week they used anti-terror legislation to freeze the assets of Icelandic companies in the UK when their banking troubles were announced.)
Geoff Hoon(?), on Question time earlier, said he was prepared to go "quite a long way, actually" into civil liberties if it meant preventing terrorism, as "the most basic right is the right not to be killed by a terrorist".
I can see why, if you believe that, more government data collection seems like a good plan. What I can't really see is how you can believe that without having your scaremongering-detection sense going at full volume.
This is just bureaucrats trying to cover their asses. Collecting more data is something that you can measure and point to.
Look we collected all of this!
Never mind the fact that the real difficulty is in distinguishing the noise from the signal.
And the more data you collect the harder that gets.
Never mind the fact the CIA was watching the 9/11 guys cross from Canada into the US, and called the FBI and told them.
Never mind that there were FBI agents who were trying to get someone's attention because they knew there was something fishy with all those guys taking flight lessons.
Never mind that clearly the problem was not a lack of data collection.
Never mind all that because doing the smart thing is hard and proving you're doing something by being smart is impossible.
But data collection is easy and it's easy to prove you're doing all you can.