The Last, Best Hope: Sysadmins and DBAs as the Last Guardians of Privacy

Accusations that the NSA has access to 20Tb of commercial phone data. Mooted plans by the Attorney General to introduce compulsory data retention. Meanwhile, Google has all your email, that online quiz site knows your political opinions, and MySpace knows what your children like for lunch. Danny O'Brien takes a whistle-stop tour of our privacy laws, the current status of surveillance, and how the best chance of protecting privacy in a digital age might just lie in the BOFH.

Danny O'Brien is activism co-ordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He also writes the "Life Hacks" column for MAKE magazine, and continues to edit Need To Know, Britain's most sarcastic geek newsletter since 1997. He has written and presented science and travel shows for the BBC, and performed a solo show about the Net in the London's West End.