Lionel Rockman asked Linda Jaivin:

Hi Linda, I was at Monalloto at Red Hill last Friday the 21st. You mentioned that the last time you visited China; you felt that you were not being followed. May I suggest that there is no need for security agency's to do this anymore, as all they need do is track you on your mobile phone? Have you investigated that this may be a possibility? Lionel Rockman.

Linda Jaivin Hi Lionel! Thank you very much for coming to the talk at Red Hill and also for your question. You're absolutely right. In the past, in China in the 1980s, I could look across the street and see someone standing behind a tree watching me. Now, it's not just governments, but social media sites, e-commerce sites, the NSA, and others who routinely mine our metadata and more without ever showing their faces. I wrote about what it was like to live under the former regime in my book The Monkey and the Dragon (now available only in e-book form); more recently, I have written about my views on the importance of privacy in a world of mass surveillance in the Monthly magazine https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2... You might be interested in having a look at those. It's an interesting conversation to have! Thank you again, and very best wishes, Linda

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