Australia has a fairly high rate of mobile phone acquisition, I’ve heard, but I don’t want one of the things myself. Even less now.

This reminds me (again) how important it is that governments have rules they have to follow, and that they have to operate transparently and be held accountable. That’s probably the worst thing about BushCo. They’re the most shadowy cabal ever. I mean, you want to talk secret combinations. And that allows all kinds of abuses.

Check this fictional story in Cosmos magazine for another innovative use for everyone’s mobile phones. Fun fun!

Well said, John! This is portrayed fairly well in the movie “Enemy of the State” (too bad Clean Flicks is out of business now… and I sold my edited copy). An innocent man was framed, pursued, bugged, harassed, chased, and charged with crimes he didn’t commit. The fact that we have nothing to hide doesn’t warrant surrendering our privacy and other liberties. That will only quickly lead to a totalitarian police state.

Well, I think our lives are so filled with trivial minutia that we really don’t care if the FBI intercepts my wife asking me to pick up some milk on the way home.

I think some of the reason people get apathetic to privacy issues is that we don’t really care if the government listens, as most of us have nothing to hide.

I think people need to realize the slippery slope that privacy invasion threatens, and the possibilities that open up once privacy is surrendered. Most will counter that they don’t mind because they have nothing to hide, but this premise assumes that the interrogator is benevolent, and isn’t hiding something himself. :)