context: we have federal votes next weekend here in germany.

just read twitter (yes, i should know better ;) with someone joking about that if you lick the envelopes for your postal vote the government has your DNA.

with all the shit governments pull all the fucking time.. $agency might just collect the strips for later use, doesn't need much storage. got a district with much lefties? righties? anyone you dislike?

i think voting by mail should be the rare exemption, not standard procedure. this should be a no-brainer, never trust anyone _too much_ if it comes to votes. it's a valuable tool for people who are not able to physically go to the vote.

i really sometimes wish that the people who still make jokes about mass surveillance get exactly the world they joke about :|

@bonifartius Ehhh... do you seriously believe that they'll gather DNA from licking envelopes? :P

@trinsec no, just pointing out that it might actually be done by agencies and that making jokes about it to tease conspiracy theorists is.. misguided? :)

@bonifartius You seriously believe agencies are going to do this? :P

@trinsec why not? it's an easy opportunity, and spooks are known for all kinds of weird operations 💁

i think trusting anyone who has power is misguided. i know that the idea of democracies is that the electorate holds the power. in reality, it seems to be quite different though.

i don't think that there is widespread DNA collection, but it's a perfect opprtunity if you want to.