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You're not alone. What's been seriously depressing is the relatively weak public outrage. It's hard to say whether the One-Way Panopticon is a product of democr

• sneak 13y ago
  Fortunately, we don't need public outrage. For once, we will be saved by the fact that our government is practically owned by large corporations: The PRISM participants, specifically Microsoft/Skype, Google, Apple, and Facebook, have more customers outside of the US than they do inside of the US. This "we only surveil foreign entities without a warrant" (despite being a lie) is more than sufficient to put a bullet in the head of the US internet industry, or at least its significant competitive advantage in the global market. Google is leading the charge, but don't expect the others to be quiet about it, either— we're actually talking about direct effects on revenue here. Many in Europe are already calling for penalties for violating EU privacy laws (many/most/all of these companies use the Double Irish tax minimization strategy, subjecting them to EU law at some point in the chain). Some municipalities and governments have already prohibited the use of e.g. Google Apps on security grounds. You can't throw one of the largest industries in the US under the bus in the global market and not expect them to spend as much as they need to to protect their business models.