Hunting for [Crackers], N.S.A. Secretly Expands Internet Spying at U.S. Border.

Americans are not happy with exchanging personal data for various services. Rather, they think they don't have a choice — that companies will get the data anyway.

Here are more details.

Those despairing people are right in a narrow sense: refusing to use one site, on one occasion, won't get them control of their data. But it is an error to conclude that it is hopeless to resist. Rather, you need to resist consistently — but that's not really hard. I do it, and you can do it.

Beyond individual resistance, we can organize to require companies to respect our privacy, even to stop asking us for data.

London thugs are using stingrays, which track all cell phones in the vicinity and can listen to any of them, and they refuse to say anything about why, or who they are listening to.

Perhaps some of those uses are justified, but the secrecy is dangerous.

The ACLU has documented how Philadelphia thugs target poor people when they seize their money without convicting them (often without accusing them) of a crime.

Crackers entered US government systems used for security checks and got detailed personal information about millions of present and former government employees.

Also about their friends and relatives.

A lot of this information interested the government because it might be usable for blackmail.