> The difference between sending it over a chat and handing it over to a clerk (who then photocopies it [...]

The difference is that the paper copy is local and only accessible to the hotel (and any government employee that might come knocking).

The digital version is accessible to anyone who has access to the system, which as we know well on HN includes bureaucrats (or police) with a vendetta against you and any hacker that can manage to breach the feeble defenses of the computer storing the data. That computer isn't locked down because the information is not valuable to the person who holds it; they're paid to satisfy a record-keeping law, not maintain system security.

> at least "Typing it into the computer" doesn't leave them with a picture, just most of the data.

Agreed, except now uploading a scan is the easiest way to file the data.

Good points.

I do agree that "not without a warrant" is a pretty load-bearing thing and it _should_ be tedious to get information. When a lot of info is just so easy to churn through that can activate new forms of abuse, even if from an information-theoretical point of view the information was always there.

And it's not even just about public officials. All those stories of people at Google reading their exes emails or whatever (maybe it was FB? Still) sticks to me.