Both good points. From what I've been reading, "pattern finding" databases instead of "hash finding" databases are starting to be the new thing that allows huge

Both good points. From what I've been reading, "pattern finding" databases instead of "hash finding" databases are starting to be the new thing that allows huge and useful data analysis, and you can find patterns among a collection of lies or even just otherwise random data that wouldn't be associated without the pattern matching. Fundamentally, it only takes one matching join on your citizen-data against any other collected assortment of data to implicate you. Human stupidity will continue being the weakest link. But there's still a lot that can be done to guard against it. Even if the government manages to figure out that user@example is an Al-Qaeda member, and they know I sent them an email, they have no idea what I sent without resorting to, depending on how secure I was, torture, bargaining, private key compromises of the receiver, further insecure communications from the receiver's end, or hard drive sniffing for the original message from my computer. Increased carefulness can guarantee the message only exists within the minds of the sender/receiver, but with the advent of the "forgetting pill" even that vulnerability can be accounted for when plotting world domination. Of course as you note, human stupidity can undo it, but that's no reason to give up adding more layers of security.