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| This is Larry Page, CEO of Google. He knows everything about you. Mostly because you told him. |
In the midst of all this big brother panic, most people seem
to be overlooking that the organization that has the most data on you isn’t the
NSA, but likely a private company like Google or Facebook. Why is this? Because
you keep giving them all your information! On a regular basis, we enter very
real and personal information – our addresses and phone numbers, our interests
and political views, compromising photographs and vacation plans – to the
social networks. Many of us then use those same social network signins to gain
access to other websites. Those websites then also get access to some of your
information, not to mention the social networks gaining information about your
activity on those websites you’re using them to sign in with.
Think about what has been the most destructive force to the
American people in recent years. If you work really hard, you can try to blame Chris Dodd and Barney
Frank for some of it, I guess. Really though, the most destructive force in
peoples’ lives since 9/11 has been private corporations (mostly banks) taking
advantage of folks’ desires to own houses and other property. The information
that individuals keep willingly allowing private companies to collect (which we
usually do not out of necessity but convenience) is a much clearer invitation
to be taken advantage of or otherwise injured.
