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Originally Posted by TBOLTRAM
Actually it is a matter of principal. No one has the right to monitor you unless there is a court order.
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Exactly, particularly not without your knowledge *and* consent.
One of the problems is that many of us are conditioned that being monitored is just how things are... and in many respects that's true. That that doesn't make it ok or right. So much monitoring is passive and opt out that we forget about it. Even things like store cards, there's a big database in the sky where all of our purchases made with store cards, credit cards, ATM/debit cards are stored. Websites too.
Anyone remember a once notorious female who had her Amazon purchase history supboenaed by prosecutor Kenneth Starr?
I think part of the big reaction to the news about Carrier IQ is because the American people are rightfully getting fed up with being surreptitiously monitored. And because it was mostly previously unknown, hidden, and there was no way to turn if off. It reminds me of the Sony rootkit debaucle.
Mobile spyware is becoming a scourge like computer spyware was 10 years ago. Gator or 1800Solutions anyone? People got sick of that and the FTC eventually cracked down on them, and folks are becoming sick of mobile monitoring now.
I don't disagree with NJB's statement that the sky fell long ago, but that doesn't make it ok or right, or mean that we should be passive about it. Reading that CIQ is not as pervasive as initially thought is good news, but it doesn't change the fact that it's wrong on many levels as Ian said.