Clueless
"If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear."
I have to laugh everytime I hear this old chesnut trotted out. EVERYONE has something to hide, and not because of criminal intent.
I run a business, do I want to share my business plans, client lists and client deals with everyone? Of course not.
The vast majority of the anti-terror measures that have been introduced are pointless and don't make us one bit safer. E.g. Flying into the US has since 9/11 become a major pain, with all the checks. Will this security keep the terrorists out? Not at all. The US has 12,000Km or border and 20,000Km coastline, how are you going to protect that? You can't.
Secondly, do I trust the government with all this information, No not at all. They have proved time and again to be totally incompetant with handling large database projects, not just the design and implementation, but also the security and integrity of the data. God help the USA if someone called 'John Smith' finds their way on the no fly list..
There is no 100% security and there is always a risk that you find yourself in the wrong place and the wrong time. The liklihood that this happens is very very low.
I am not afraid of terrorists, and I don't intend to change my lifestyle one bit, because of a very small number of nutjobs. The attempt of our governments to scare us into believing that we are all risk and the measures they want to introduce are necessary, is simply an excuse to become more authoritarian and less democratic. This type of FUD must be resisted; vote these governments out.
One final point; recently in the UK, the security services bugged the phone of some Pakistani guys with some dodgy contacts in Pakistan, who came up with the scheme to bring liquid explosive on to aircraft. Well the scheme was hair-brained, with zero chance of them being able to do the DIY chemistry on the aircraft. The result: now we have all the stupid restrictions on liquids and are we anyway safer because of them? No.
Incidentally, have any of these 'bombers' been charged with anything yet?