Those who would give up privacy for a little safety …

Rick Falkvinge points to this new short film about privacy and increasing government surveillance:

I think some of the tech is still awhile away, but that doesn't mean it won't be there in my or certainly my kids' lifetimes. Already we are seeing fingerprint scanners being used to id kids when they pay for their school lunches in Maryland and LA.

No doubt convenience and security will be the justificaton for expanding these surveillance tools. If you doubt that they will be abused, then look no further than what access to your information mobile phone carriers are providing to the police without a warrant:

reset your voicemail PIN;
copying existing messages to a separate account;
cloning your voice mail as it comes in.

Even land lines aren't safe as Verizon will allow police to:

Change the number for a landline too and give the new number only to them;
Set an account so that if someone picks up a landline to call out, it
automatically dials a designated law enforcement number—and no one else;
Prevent all outgoing calls or do various things to force a number out of
service—from straight-up interrupting a call to sending a 3-decibel
sound on the phone line to irritate the caller so he/she hangs up.

Charming world we are building. As Franklin is quoted as saying: