“The challenges to our privacy do not come from government alone. Corporations of all shapes and sizes track what you buy, store and analyze our data, and use it for commercial purposes; that’s how those targeted ads pop up on your computer or smartphone.” President Obama, January 2014
That comment is directed squarely at Google, Facebook and others, who as far as I am concerned, when it comes to privacy are essentially the other side of the same coin. A lot of talk about privacy from Silicon Valley titans is mostly talk — and the only reason we hear some polite noises from them is because they might end up losing business in non-US markets. Check out this profile of President Barack Obama in The New Yorker. I think Editor David Remnick went easy on the president, but still it is great writing.
Updates:
- Ana Marie Cox in The Guardian asks the questions: who should we be scared of more — our government or the corporations.
- John Podesta of the White House on Big Data and privacy. Frankly, I don’t believe a single word out of the Whitehouse and the Washington DC. It is all nothing but a bunch of self-serving half-truths!
