I think the phrase “pocket Stasi”, meaning a cell phone that tracks and surveils you too much, has legs.
I first ran in to it yesterday, in a review of the Moto X flagged by David Farber’s email list:
… essentially, it’s the world’s most sophisticated cluster of sensors you can wear on your person, and it’s going to know every single thing you do, whether it’s driving, sleeping or taking a walk around the block. Google is betting that you will love your pocket Stasi so much you’ll never want to be without it—and Google is right.
I don’t know what the first use might be – maybe LibrarianShipwreck, The Stasi Agent in Your Pocket?
Yes, it trivializes the horror of the Stasi — totalizing sensors are bad, but not as bad as a secret police, nor is Google a pipeline direct to one. But I still think the phrase has legs.
