Spy Agencies Are Addicted to Corporate Data Load: Bruce Schneier

Imagine the government passed a law requiring all citizens to carry a tracking device. Such a law would immediately be found unconstitutional. Yet we all carry mobile phones.

If the National Security Agency required us to notify it whenever we made a new friend, the nation would rebel. Yet we notify Facebook Inc. If the Federal Bureau of Investigation demanded copies of all our conversations and correspondence, it would be laughed at. Yet we provide copies of our e-mail to Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. or whoever our mail host is; we provide copies of our text messages to Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and Sprint Corp.; and we provide copies of other conversations to Twitter Inc., Facebook, LinkedIn Corp. or whatever other site is hosting them.