Modern surveillance

So now you meet a group of strangers, people you might meet again, and you look them up on Google. You see who their friends are on Facebook. You see what petitions they have signed, what comments they have made in various campaigning guest books, what they regard as their best photographs and so and so on.

Well, that's handy. That means I can work out what we have in common; how I can find a common start point to build a friendship; how I can avoid social difficulties by steering clear of sensitive issues.

And then there is that potential to manipulate, to demonstrate greater similarities than exist, to get people on my side in an argument because I know what gets them interested, what issues they support.

And then I wonder what messages I have left scattered about. And who could use those; and for what.

And then there is the other stuff, the information that is collected that is not on Google, that someone, somewhere, might think of interest, that might be useful, to prompt me or point me out in schemes of which I have no knowledge.