Control de registros telefónicos en EEUU

Horror e indignación en los EEUU porque el gobierno admitió que controla los números telefónicos de las llamadas de millones de personas. Hoy veo esta columna de Mark Steyn en Instapundit sobre este tema. Me parece muy interesante el paralelismo que hace entre la información privada a la que tienen acceso las autoridades fiscales de EEUU y el caso de las facturas de teléfono.

Vuelvo a repetir, aún si no compartimos las críticas, creo que las voces disidentes son saludables para cualquier sistema político. Es fundamental contar con mecanismos de control:

I'm a strong believer in privacy rights. I don't see why Americans are obligated to give the government their bank account details and the holdings therein. Other revenue agencies in other free societies don't require that level of disclosure. But, given that the people of the United States are apparently entirely cool with that, it's hard to see why lists of phone numbers (i.e., your monthly statement) with no identifying information attached to them is of such a vastly different order of magnitude. By definition, "connecting the dots" involves getting to see the dots in the first place.

Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) feels differently. "Look at this headline," huffed the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The secret collection of phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. Now, are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaida?"

No. But next time he's flying from D.C. to Burlington, Vt., on a Friday afternoon he might look at the security line: Tens of millions of Americans are having to take their coats and shoes off! Are you telling me that tens of millions of ordinary shoe-wearing Americans are involved with al-Qaida?