It's right to worry about security, but sometimes data trawls can be useful
Should we be afraid of great data trawls surveying us? After the Guardian's revelations, people have reasons to be uneasy. Nothing is private, everything can be seen by big government surveying emails and phone records or by small-time private detectives slipped a few hundred quid by journalists for scamming and hacking. Tesco knows your tastes and foibles, Oyster and CCTV know where you are and where you've been.
Personally, I have always found it hard to work myself into a panic about my own privacy. I assume it's not safe to commit secrets or indiscretions to email – partly because I might press the wrong key and send it out to all and sundry. But paranoia is rife and sometimes extreme. I get letters from people wanting me to investigate the dark forces planting cameras and microphones in their walls: they think I'm part of the conspiracy when I suggest this is a usually curable delusion, and their doctor is probably not part of the plot. But among those not clinically ill, there is a growing trend to fear Big Brother and the state.