This is a very tricky issue. I’m certainly no anti-government Libertarian or Tea Partier. But I think there’s a lot of value in keeping institutions separate, s

This is a very tricky issue. I’m certainly no anti-government Libertarian or Tea Partier. But I think there’s a lot of value in keeping institutions separate, so they can act as checks and balances on each other. Just as the different branches of government are separate, and news organizations are independent, corporations should be independent (including from each other -- competition, not cosy cartels). Google already does a fantastic job protecting their users from hackers, including those from nation states like China and Russia. Rather than cosying up to the US government, they should keep a wary eye on whether to protect their users from US government hackers too. Also, I’m pretty sure there are already plenty of exceptionally smart people working at the NSA. I’ll freely admit I’m not totally consistent on this, as I strongly support some big government-run organizations like the NHS (I’m from the UK).