I don't understand this stuff so - lets legislate the crap out of it.
This (Canuck, so I get the concept of an upper house) is what the senior house is supposed to prevent, not follow. If one does not comprehend the subject, one cannot create comprehensive and effective legislation, thus one should not be ramrodding it in.
I understand the objective and why, and in reality the objective is honourable, but it is so fine a line between *preventing something* and *watching everyone all the time* that the legislation to effectively, correctly and properly manage the information such that it is not "We Want Everything from Everyone All The Time Just In Case" but rather "We need to find the problems before they happen" cannot be written. It JUST CANNOT be written. Effectively once the pool of information, no matter how stripped down, cleaned and controlled it is, exists, it becomes a case of (5 years from now its illegal to say the word shit on the internets) -- GO BACK AND FIND EM ALL!!!.....
I would have less of an issue with the idea of gathering "intelligence" and storing it if;
a) those that stored it could be trusted to keep it and *NOT MODIFY IT*
b) those that were using the intelligence could be trusted to use it *ONLY* for those things that we need to prevent (Mass murders, serial rapists perhaps, and such) - but it will be used (this might be offensive to some but it makes the point) by future Feminazi government types to find misogynistic males who've even once uttered the phrase "Hey babe, wanna get laid?"
c) if all of humanity *as a species* could give up on the "My sky fairy is better than your sky fairy" and "My economic model kicks your economic model's ass" or the "My skin makes me better than your skin" bullshit that tends to run our lives these days.
d) If and ONLY if economic engines are separated by impenetrable barriers from legislative engines. Until such time as companies are utterly BANNED from any political activity of any form, under pain of execution of the entire C suite, we will not have freedoms and legislation for persons. Only for and by the corporations.
(okay - the last bit is perhaps a tad over the top, but you get the drift, yes - I'm ranting because I'm dealing with a 4 vendor finger-pointing roundabout today, appropriate icon is appropriate)