I'm a little surprised at the uproar over the NSA phone record database. It's not like the tech sector has been exactly secretive about the fact they they track just about everything we do online. They've been announcing the many splendid wonders "big data" is going to bring to our lives for months now. Why is anyone surprised the government wants to use the same data to identify potential terrorists?
Was everyone asleep when google established a massive database tracking your every movement, google search, web history and online purchase so as to better deliver you to advertisers who have a few offers they'd like you to consider? If you have a cell phone, and you keep it on you at all times, the government can track your movements for the past couple years without much effort. Not only has it been established that every major corporation is tracking your movements and spending habits (and ANY OTHER trackable activity) to better manipulate you into spending money, but it's also well known they'll happily give the government any of this information on a moment's notice if a big frowny face comes up on screen when the government runs your online history through one of their secret algorithms. But it's just now, when the existence of a not-so-secret 7-year-old NSA program that tracks your phone records becomes public knowledge, that you start to worry about your privacy? Tracking the feature on your phone that you use the least and has the tracked data with the least personal information stored about you?
The ball is on the one-yard line, you're on defense, and some of you have just looked up from your phone and realized you're playing football. Welcome to planet Earth citizens. I sure hope you brought a hell of a defensive line with you on that spaceship.
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