Analysis: Path to more data has led to real-life 'Truman Show'

Jon Swartz, USA TODAY6:04 p.m. EDT June 7, 2013



(Photo: Paramount Pictures)


SAN FRANCISCO — It sounds like the classic Watergate puzzler: Who knew what, and when?

If we are to believe Apple, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and four other tech giants, they had no knowledge of the government-run PRISM program, which allegedly monitored Internet activity. (The federal government denies it spied on U.S. citizens.)

Press reports, however, point to a plot over several years in which nine tech firms provided data to the NSA, which had access to their data systems.

Time, and history, will separate truth from fiction.

What is unarguable is that in an era of so-called big data — where every conceivable action of every citizen is documented via photo, text, status update and video — it was inevitable some information would be gleaned for purposes other than monetization.

In their zealous pursuit of data on seemingly everything consumers do, tech companies have set themselves — and consumers — on a path to a real-life Truman Show.

Facebook, after all, does call the central feature of its profile pages for 1.1 billion people a Timeline. Google is all about aggregating all you do — the Google+ social network, Gmail, Maps, etc. — in a digital footprint. Apple's iPhone and iPad are our hardware alter egos.

And in its pursuit of lock-down security in a post 9/11-world, the government has found a font of information 24x7 created by the best and brightest minds in the world.

Sounds like a perfect storm of Big Brother meet Big Data, whomever you believe.

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