I'm all for privacy rights, but I find it quite peculiar to be worried about LibraryThing as something the government would use to "decide I'm dangerous".
I'm much more concerned about the fact that any time I enter a government building they can check how much cash I'm carrying. Or that stupid effing RFID they're putting in new passports (which is abhorrent both on a tracking level and on a how ridiculously easy it is to hack this thing level. Security through insecurity, thanks a lot, Uncle Sam). Or that they're routinely scanning my email and monitoring calls I make to foreign countries.
Do you use encryption every time you send email, Allie? Do you ever bank online or buy anything by credit card? Did you request your residence be obscured off google street view? Do you wear a hat and scarf when you go to the ATM or the grocery store? Got one of those nifty fastpass thingys that tells the government to the second whenever you've gone through a toll point?
It's not only that there's a thousand bigger, more pressing privacy concerns in today's society. It's also that proper surveillance always first seeks information that isn't self-reported. That's why the library records are more valuable than my lthing account. I can report any book I feel like to lthing, whether I own it or not. People lie. A lot. Anything transaction based (such as checking out a barcoded book, or buying an item on amazon) is more valuable data from a surveillance perspective than anything self-reported. Not that pooling together information from freely available sources isn't something the government (or a stalker) won't do, but it's also a measure of last resort. I don't completely agree with Steph's position, at least not necessarily from a societal viewpoint, but from a personal viewpoint, the second the gov't starts checking my lthing account, I'm surely already a "person of interest" and they've also already warrantlessly wiretapped me and have an unmarked van outside my house. My forum posts to EP and my LibraryThing will be the LAST thing they'll check, and they won't need lthing at all, because they can just walk into my house and pick up the physical copy of "Farenheit 451" off the shelf while they're arresting me.
