Any modern laptop can easily store extensive details about every citizen of an entire country. But that's a pretty dangerous path, as these "leaks" illustrate (and perhaps many more don't). What is the best way forward, as a citizen? Avoid getting into such databases? How? No credit cards? No cell phones? Sending out all emails encrypted? Using the TOR network? It makes no sense.

Trouble is - all that data just keeps on getting collected. The big problem is that it's not just about what people do with that data today, but what someone might decide to do with it in the future. Where is all that data going? How come it's getting into all those laptops and CDs in the first place?

There is no need to delete anything, now that storage is so cheap (except perhaps in the White House, or while circumventing it?).

We're setting ourselves up to pay dearly one day...