NOW, NOW... "They" Aren't Spying, Really

OUT ON THIS LIMB,
YOU CAN RUN but you cannot hide

If I didn't already know the outcry over government spying on private email and phone users would sputter out with a whimper when the dust settled, I wouldn't have bothered posting my little sidebar warning back in 2011.

If only the same public indignation (short-lived or no...)  could extend all the way to the topic of PRIVATE online spying.

Who hasn't wondered how powerful companies like Apple and Google, Disqus, etc, are managing to resist the temptation to exploit all they know about our lives? 

After years of tracking Who's Who Online, they can effortlessly single out the evil conservatives from the magnanimous liberals; the pinheaded Christians from those all-wise and ever enlightened agnostic secularists. 

There's unimaginable power there.  I don't even dare to elucidate on, it is so frightening.

Who hasn't thought, with the same chill down the spine which came fifteen years ago over same-sex marriage (whose adherents back then threw rocks, blockaded churches and taunted parishioners), that when the gloves come off of all the hyper-liberal internet providers' widget metadata yadayada, the enemies of state will have suddenly become us: the 'little christian guy' just trying to get along, assuming the first amendment will prevent their daily torture by media lynch mobs, peer pressure, and -GASP- a barrage of UNLIKE's on Facebook and Instagram...

First Amendment-WhAt? Trust the Justice Department-WhO?

WELL.

Good luck with that.