>while emotionally i'm with you, logically i think that the data entering public commerce (until of course Palantir collected it illegally or in violation of pr

>while emotionally i'm with you, logically i think that the data entering public commerce (until of course Palantir collected it illegally or in violation of privacy provisions of user contracts - which is pretty hard to establish given the multi-layer of data laundering) is like somebody walking the public street, ie. free game, in the sense that i don't see any explicit protection applicable in such a case. A fair assessment of the current situation. However, there's nothing stopping the US (or any other government) from restricting both the collection of such data and/or government use of that collected data. What's apparently missing is the political will. Which points to the larger problem in the US -- sewers of filthy lucre flowing through the political system. If you get rid of the necessity for all that money with strict public funding of elections, along with resources to allow all citizens to express themselves on an equal footing with everyone else, we're more likely to get a government focused on the needs of constituents rather than the desires of big money contributors.