No more secrets

Let's set aside, for one moment, the executive order that grants the U.S. government access to the phone and Internet records of millions of Americans, and focus on the real story -- everything we do over the Internet and the phone is, in fact, recorded for posterity.

Whether or not anything will ever be done with the information gathered is up for legal debate, but the fact of the matter is that the records exist and nothing can be kept a secret. All major Internet service providers keep exact records on who logs onto what, how often and through which device; to whom you talk, for how long and from which location; whom you emailed and what attachments were included in the message.

Google is the perfect example: The Internet giant, which swears on everything it holds dear that it does not read our email correspondence, can somehow come up with sidebar links and ads that are tailored specifically for us, because its robot has read our emails and knows we are interested in whatever the ads say.

Okay, so it is not a flesh and blood human who reads our email correspondence, but a robot; and it is not reading the entire thing, just scanning it for key words, but it is still an invasion of our privacy. Our user name lets it know the topics we are interested in or talk about, to whom we talked about those topics, what we order online, how much time we spend surfing the Web and who our friends are; as well as where we went, which roads we chose for our travels, and when we got back.

Anyone in Google, Microsoft or Facebook could just hand this information over to the highest bidder; and who knows, maybe we even gave them the right to do so by signing all those endless terms, conditions and waivers we to which we agree without really reading them.

Big Brother is recording you and keeping detailed notes that could one day be handed over to the courts, given the right warrant. Naturally, this information could also find its way into the hands of other elements, which are not necessarily looking out for our best interests, or those who are looking to outright exploit our weaknesses.

The information exists, and naturally so do those who are experts at mining it, analyzing it and profiling us through it. The Internet has left us all exposed, and thanks to Facebook our profiles also have a name and a photo attached to them. Everything is out there, just waiting to be cross-referenced. Our lives have become an online jigsaw puzzle, just waiting to be put together. There are no more secrets.