The second oddest thing is that the same people who complain about how the corporations are running the world are for some reason much more incensed about governments getting access to this personal data for actual useful reasons (however minor they're perceived) than they are about corporations accumulating this data to sell to each other and anyone with enough dollars (as clearly mentioned in the privacy policies that no one cares to read).
I mean, if corporations are really running the world then we should be more worried about them, I would think.
It's not as if the average individual government employee has the ability to spawn black helicopters or deploy police assets just to settle a neighborhood rivalry. If anything they have less actual power than a corporate drone nowadays (just ask the bankers).
Teenagers have killed themselves over stuff posted to Facebook so I wish people would quit acting like the government is really that much more directly important to the day-to-day lives of people. If you're going to be worried then be worried, but at least be consistently worried.
Someone has already fallen on their sword for that, with more sure to follow. This isn't really a great example of Obama condoning poor behavior by public servants.
I mean, if corporations are really running the world then we should be more worried about them, I would think.