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This whole news story has taught me a lesson about the downside of tracking users. I now understand why some people opt out of, say, behavioral targeted ads: it has nothing to do with annoying ads, and everything to do with data eventually getting into the wrong hands. The only way to prevent the misuse of data is to not collect it in the first place.

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I'm a little scared because... yes, that's sort of the whole point privacy advocates have been trying to make since I learned about the internet.

You really never realized that? It's been the stated reason for people opting out for a while now. It takes PRISM for it to sink in?

Yeesh.

Apparently up until this point people figured that everyone but the government would have access to their data, but they were OK with that... it's free to signup, after all!

Yeah, that's all kinds of weird. For starters, what rational person would expect that in a world where everyone but the government has access to their data- that the government would not have access to their data?

The statement is of course a strange construct when examined literally, but have you ever tried keeping a secret from just one person?

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