Who Are You Afraid of the Most?

Brand consultant Jonathan Baskin says that data gathering by private companies "puts the National Security Agency to shame."

From the level of the internet service provider, through to social-media platforms and websites, and including apps, ads and clickable content (like videos), we collect a vast amount of information on consumers' online behavior (and their geophysical location), then use it to tee-up search results, info and ads to millions of people millions of times every day … ideally to each one of them uniquely so. We don't do it to keep anybody safe, however. We do it to sell stuff.

We are long past the point where even the virtuous who think they "have nothing to hide" can ignore the incessant snooping from all quarters. Fearing identity theft, no one freely gives out her social security number or date of birth any more. For various un-nefarious reasons people guard information about their income from co-workers; they are circumspect when talking about their assets with family and friends. But privacy does seem to be a losing battle in the expanding surveillance corporate state.

For all its problems corporate snooping, IMHO, is less bad than that done by the government. If data is lost or misused, private actors are subject to civil and criminal penalties. And for the most part one can still opt out of allowing a bank or social networking site to have access to one's information.

Not so with the government, which, despite the Fifth Amendment, can compel the submission of the most sensitive information and which has prosecutorial power to boot. Who are you afraid of the most? © 2013 Stephen Yuen