[budman]

Wow. Just Wow.

For years all of this was in the back of my mind as being capable but my not wanting to think like a conspiracy crackpot just dismissed the thought as it couldn't be possible. A conspiracy takes a lot of co-operation from within large corporations who must also remain it a secret. Surely someone would have a conscious and leak it? Or one of companies we all look up to as a modern example of do-good company would say "Hell NO" to the attempt and then let the world know what was attempted. Guess that was eventually proven true with Snowden (a real hero imo), just shocked they were able to operate to the scale they did for so long before a Snowden came along.

In my mind, this is not so much a shock to me regarding the NSA as well as the current evil government we have had in place. Doesn't take a genius to realize the president lies to our face on TV about trivial issues/promises, so expected for top secret stuff.

What is the BIG stomach churning shock to me is the very companies that we have come to know that are multi-billion dollar conglomerates providing service/products for millions for every day use has been a part of it. A part of this secret web while all the while proclaiming privacy for it users. I guess at end of day profits still rule the roost. "Just do this for us, turn a blind eye, and you get to go on making your billions". I wonder how many CEO's knew of all this. Gates? Zuckerburg? Etc etc.

I feel like I have no outs now. There are no alternatives to current establishment of companies that make our lives easier. Should we all wipe our PC's and use Linux, sell our phones and use Ubuntu Phone, not pay for SSL certs anymore (another mafia), etc?