Personally, I don't worry much about PRISM. Abstractly, yes, these are very important issues. I don't want to downplay that. However, since at least 1925 the US

Personally, I don't worry much about PRISM. Abstractly, yes, these are very important issues. I don't want to downplay that. However, since at least 1925 the US has always been in more danger from private entities than from its government, and this is even more true of individuals within the US. Private health insurance is a lot scarier than our government. Given the ease with which private entities can and do destroy an individual's reputation, often over petty slights, PRISM is low on my concern list compared to that. I know people who've been blacklisted by venture capitalists. I don't know anyone who's been personally affected by PRISM. I'm sure that some people have been; I just think it's rarer. Top software executives are pissed about PRISM not because of the legality or the ethics of the program. They're embarrassed that, although they make gigantic salaries and are darlings at the Silicon Valley ball, they got pwned by nerds in Maryland making government salaries. Don't get me wrong. There are principled civil libertarians who are raising these issues because they genuinely care about what is happening, and it's worth listening to them. But the indignation of the software execs and venture capitalists is just petty embarrassment and nothing more.