Interesting read from The Gaurdian

"What will life be like after the internet? Thanks to the mass surveillance undertaken by the National Security Agency and the general creepiness of companies like Google and Facebook, I've found myself considering this question. I mean, nothing lasts forever, right?
There's a broad tech backlash going on right now; I wonder just how deep the disillusionment runs. I get the feeling that there are folks out there who would relish putting the internet behind us sooner rather than later. Imagine that: even the internet could be a thing of the past one day. What would that be like? No Facebook. No Google. No government nerds looking through your webcam.
But could we become more secure without abandoning the internet? What if there's a third way? One that doesn't involve either passive resignation to being exploited or a Luddite smash-the-looms fantasy. What if we began to develop and encourage the adoption of machines and a network that are actually secure – through which neither thieves, corporations, nor the NSA could track us – and what if these could be configured by us, to really do what we want them to do? To stop the spying, stealing and monitoring, but to allow other things to continue.
What would that look like?"

The NSA is burning down the web, but what if we rebuilt a spy-proof internet?

As for an internet keeping thieves and spies out, well, given the nature of the internet, we'd have to keep people out, so that's not really practical...and I'm posting this on a Google owned platform, which is then reposted to twitter and facebook...but I think what it comes down to is, on the government side, a respect for the boundaries already in place, broadly speaking, the 4th amendment in the States for instance, a government held accountable, not saying no snooping, but justified snooping, ie with a warrant, probably cause, etc.

On the corporate side, well, I know what facebook and google do with my data.  I don't expect something for nothing, and I assume anything on the internet is public, I don't post anything I wouldn't otherwise say or do in public, and they don't hide that I am an advertising moneymaker for them.  Now, if they did it without my knowledge, or if I were forced to utilize a service that divulged information I didn't want divulged, that would be another matter.

I am not saying the status quo is good, quite the opposite, I think we have become over reliant and addicted to the wonderful world that is the internet, but I think we have no one to blame more than ourselves...and I include myself in that finger point.  Facebook and Google collect and use our data because we put it there, knowing full well it was being used for tracking and advertising...we should not be outraged that corporations are using data to make money off of it, but that we, as a whole, are completely ok with it