I find it bemusing that this is presented as somehow suprising and clashing with formerly held SV ideals. As if a lot of these companies don't already have mass user survellance as their primary business model.
-Neal Stephenson, 1999, "In the Beginning was the Command Line"
The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?
I suppose the loose definition of remarkable could indeed technically apply to the assertion that "capitalists" jumped on board the http and tcp/ip bandwagon to reassert plantation slavery.
Regardless, you've missed the wider context of the anecdote. Stephenson is referring to the stereotypical experiences on hippie communes during the boomer scene era, well before Barbrook and Cameron's concerns about some sort of subversion or other. They even explicitly specify that some pre-90s era of the bay area ideology obviously knew better, so they're in direct disagreement with Stephenson here. We have to pick one or the other. Frankly, I think I know which I prefer between "There's more continuity between the hippies and the yuppies than you typically expect in the valley" and "investors are supercharging democratized communication because it will make you racist and capitalist, which are equally bad".
For the rest of the context, you can read the essay here, which I think is a legal copy; Stephenson himself did also distribute it as a pdf: http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/in_the_beginning_was_the_com...
I'm not a Californian, nor even an American, but understanding the culture behind the last 40 years of digital technology... and why, after staring out so hopeful it's gone so wrong, is important stuff.
With the former it's less about the outcome—seeing obnoxious Nike ads on the internet—and more about the principle of not wanting your data to be collected, even if nothing nefarious ever comes of it. With the latter you're seeing that worst case scenario come to life.
I'd also argue that ideals in Silicon Valley are, cultrually, fully subordinated to money anyway so... it's probably a moot point how much of a gulf there is.
A cop can force me to show him my emails or text messages, but that doesn't mean I want to or that I'm making money any off of it. On the other hand, if I offer to let them read my emails for the low price of $10...
And literally anyone can be subpoenaed in the same fashion—FB and Google aren't unique in that regard. LE could subpoena the guy who runs your local deli and force him to hand over a list of every customer who came in on a certain day.
For those absorbed in the other hair-splitting/derailing thread, the word "piling" generally means to rush in foolishly with zealous enthusiasm (or worse, to do so without control), so the Economist headline contains a note of subtle judgement.