No, they are collecting data because that is how they make money. And I rather suspect that if you compare what the NSA knows about you, personally, with what th' Goog' knows, the NSA will come up well behind.
I'm not trying to minimize what the NSA has done; what they do is supposedly done in our name, which is offensive, and they have more power than any company to do harm with what they collect, which is frightening. And I'm not trying to attack the companies; they have every right to what I give them, most of which is not private even if I would wish it to be, and they do provide useful services with that information.
But if you are upset about an organization collecting information to use in some way that may be other than your best interest, the two are pretty equal.
But if you are upset about an organization collecting information to use in some way that may be other than your best interest, the two are pretty equal.
Private companies have incentive to pursue whatever the fuck they want to pursue. Public companies have a nominal responsibility to shareholders, but as long as they can justify it they can do whatever so long as it makes money eventually. Governments have a nominal responsibility to their citizens, but can do other stuff if they are allowed to do so.
WMD is such a stupid thing to bandy about, anyways--how many more are killed with cigarettes and cars than have died from these superweapons that rot in silos and labs?
PRISM, as somebody else has pointed out, is a stupid example because massive data mining is literally the business model for vast swathes of industry.
