Wow I really liked this article. It encapsulates my thoughts and validates some of my suspicions on private data trafficking quite well.
Thinking of Silicon Valley as the both the bad guy and the good in the fight for privacy is quite interesting. On the one hand these big companies fight for anti-surveillance measures and they fight against laws for weakening encryption. On the other hand, they fight against laws designed to curb dissemination of private information and general consumer protection. This dichotomy is really striking to me.
And for what it's worth, I hope the Al Jazeera America cutbacks don't affect the excellent written journalism you all do.