Recently, the President of the United States met with leaders from Google, Apple and Intel. The details of what transpired during this meeting are not important. What is important is to question why such a meeting would take place at all. Does the President meet with leaders from General Motors? Oh yes, the President owns General Motors. That aside, the precedent of the President meeting with these particular leaders is somewhat disconcerting.
Taken together, these three companies control volumes of information on most of the people around the globe. Have you ever "googled" something? Were you sick and needed something to make you feel better? How about planning a vacation or wanting to buy a new television? These are all very innocuous activities. However if you start compiling the information like Google does, it can map out a person's entire life; your likes, dislikes, ailments, and many secrets you would not want to tell your closest friend.
So that's Google, but Apple and Intel have a part to play as well. Apple makes all the "sexy" equipment we like to use to listen to music and to call our friends. They control the equipment side and the likability part. Intel on the other hand is the leader in computer chip technology. They are making ever smaller and more powerful computer chips to go into everything we use including computers and telephones.
Put these three companies together and you no longer need anything like the US Patriot Act to be able to track and maintain information on almost everyone around the world. Why is this bad? Well if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't mind, right? In most cases that may be true, but this information, this power that is becoming more and more ubiquitous, will not be used for good purposes in the future. Chips will be used to track our movements, unlock our doors, and buy our goods. Oh. That is already happening. Let's start again. Chips will be embedded in us that will track our movements, unlock our doors, and buy our goods. Chips made by Intel or a company like them. Information will be gathered by Google or a company or government like them. People will buy into it because it is convenient and the products are sexy because they are made from Apple or a company like them.
Bottom line: Even if your government does not accumulate information and track you now, companies are already laying the groundwork, so they don't have to. All this government needs to do is call a meeting with the likes of Google, Apple, and Intel and it is all theirs for the taking.
