So the News of the World is to gasp its last this weekend. And in pubs and parks, in living rooms and at dining tables up and down the land people mull over the significance of the latest revelations over phone-hacking and more.

We can picture ourselves in our minds eyes as targets too. We can imagine, if we choose to go there, how we might feel if the kinds of conversations we might have in the middle of some personal horror or tragedy were breathed in by persons unknown. We can, if we want, make links to whatever …