The key difference is how easy it is to correlate different digital datasets. The phonebook gives you name, address and phone number. Call logs give you pairs of phone numbers. Together you know who knows who. Add in the yellow pages and you know who called the suicide hotline. Mix with taxi data and you know who visited who, what time. And who went to an abortion clinic. Or a place of worship. Or who knows more than ten people that regularly worship.
Etc. Getting all that for everyone as opposed to a certain targeted someone is much, much easier with digital records.
[ed: this is why many countries have had strict rules on digital databases of personal (not just sensitive) data a long time, well before the GDPR. The amount you can learn from "simple" correlations of even public data can be staggering.]
Etc. Getting all that for everyone as opposed to a certain targeted someone is much, much easier with digital records.
[ed: this is why many countries have had strict rules on digital databases of personal (not just sensitive) data a long time, well before the GDPR. The amount you can learn from "simple" correlations of even public data can be staggering.]