rekam

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

—Michael Crichton

That is simply easy-way-out nonsense. There does exist a tension between security and privacy, one which has been acknowledged for centuries. In this day and age, talking about focusing on the real threats is even more nonsensical than in the past, as we now have the technology to process vast amounts of information with minimal added resources.

We need to realize that our rights don't exist because they are the most efficient way to go about business and that it it worth some risk to have a world where people are still free.

Privacy and security are not directly at odds, but there is a real conflict.

Datamining with current technology and implementation might not have any success catching terrorists (I certainly don't want to give up my rights should this field advance!), but unlimited data collection certainly would work to catch many, many kinds of crime.