I thought our class room discussion last week was very interesting because it shed on light on just how much internet companies know about us. As we are MBA's, I expected our conversation to be focused on the business implications of the data collected on users. However, I found it surprising that no one mentioned the recent revelations regarding how our data is being collected and used by an organization of which none of us are a customer... the elephant in the room so to speak. For the better part of the last decade, the NSA has been monitoring almost everything you do on the internet.
Why is this directly relevant to our discussion last week?
It's relevant because the NSA's PRISM program is pulling user's confidential information from the same companies we were discussing. Do you have a Facebook account? How about Gmail? Like to shop for media on Itunes? Well then the NSA has your information, knows all of your habits and who you correspond with. They have a rich database of information regarding your online habits that any advertiser would pay top dollar for.
We all clicked yes to the user agreement before using these companies' services. That agreement is supposed to act as a binding legal document by which both parties abide. It's one thing for these internet companies to sell my information in order to make a buck off of advertising. I don't like it, but I expect it because these are companies looking for profit. However I don't remember the user agreement stating that all my information would be handed over to the Government under the premise of keeping me safe.
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