Website of the Week - ErasingDavid.com
This Saturday is Data Privacy Day, a day that is set aside for us to all recognize the dangers of too much information being released. David Bond did a documentary in 2009 about his venture into going missing for 30 days, with top level detectives on his trail, all of the issues pertaining to privacy, about how governments track us, and more. This documentary was done in England, but the truths behind this documentary apply to us everywhere around the world. This is not some drug-fueled paranoia trip of some crazy idiot, and yet, David does venture into bouts of extreme paranoia that come from being on-the-run.
I’ve seen a number of documentaries and frequently they are boring, dull and lifeless, or simply uninteresting. To anyone who is concerned about their privacy, however, this is a cautionary tale that mixes horror with reality and blends in touches of charm with the panic. It underscores the fact that just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean that nobody is out to get your data. Quite the opposite… the massive amounts of data involved are scary.
EXAMPLE: At one point, he uses an odd form of Freedom Of Information Act legislation in the UK to determine what information Amazon.co.uk has tracked on him. They responded with what looked like about 150 printed pages of various information on him. SCARY!
NOTE: There are a few points that are odd, like an interviewee who claims that Facebook was created by the CIA… that do serve to spin a little oddity here and there.
This movie is available on Netflix, and for the daring and adventurous… on Amazon.com. Or is that the other way around?
