> there is clear link between the influx of CIA/NSA/FBI/DHS agents in private sector and an increase in turning over of sensitive data to government, at-will.

> there is clear link between the influx of CIA/NSA/FBI/DHS agents in private sector and an increase in turning over of sensitive data to government, at-will. Yes, that clear link is called 'growth', there's no tabloid conspiracy required. Social media companies employ vastly more people today than they did years ago, some of those people would have worked for the government in the past. And because of growth in user counts, and awareness of new policing methods, there's a growth in police and secret police interest in the data. The laws on the books largely permit this sort of thing (Warranted deep searches, warrantless-geofenced-shallow searches, buying anything that's otherwise sold to third-parties), I'm not sure what other outcome one could expect.