Mysterious disappearances?

Has anyone you know disappeared in mysterious circumstances? Isn’t that something that simply Doesn’t Happen to Ordinary People. Not in the West, at least.

In an article on El Reg, Guy Kewney explains why today’s technology may enable our government to succeed where the Stasi failed in policing everyone’s thought. I find him scarily credible, and I’m more usually sceptical: for example, I didn’t find Margaret Attwood’s Handmaids Tale plausible until it started to happen.

Time to preempt the spooks. If I suddenly disappear from the ‘net for more than a few days without explanation, you can assume something bad has happened. Please chase it up!

p.s. Does anyone know what happened to Matt Lewandowsky? Hoping for a perfectly innocent explanation of his vanishing from online. No I don’t suspect a conspiracy: there’s no suggestion he might have provoked government or mafia – it’s just that this reminds me.   [UPDATE] -  I understand there’s an explanation.  Since my informant used /msg on IRC, I’ll leave her anonymous.