> I dread to think what kind of shit a company with the funds of google or facebook could pull off
Me too. Sometimes I see these ideas in science fiction. I remember one black mirror episode where a tech company knows more about a suspect than the police. It's really unnerving watching them casually reveal all sorts of information, even the authorities seemed surprised.
Even worse is thinking about the resources governments have and the numberless ways they can abuse these powers.
Edward Snowden will die in exile while the NSA, CIA and others spy on US citizens. This will never change. No one in the ruling class is going to change it. You're a subject in a country ruled by people who aren't like you. Things do not change.
And if you try to change things, they will know. You will be labeled a terrorist, stripped of any rights you think you have and placed inside some hell hole nobody knows about so that you can be tortured until you break.
Edit: ... Holy shit. I think I just described 1984 without realizing it.
There's a heck of a lot more ways the government can make your life miserable before they escalate to force and a great many more of those ways are legally defensible in court.
Imagine if the cops had been menacingly tailing these people for an equally BS reason, what would their recourse be?
Stop being obtuse. The behavior eBay engaged is covered under laws criminalizing harassment or stalking. Try holding the .gov to the same standards and see where it gets you. Even if there isn't a legal carve-out it will be a much more uphill legal battle and the other parts of the .gov you have to deal with along the way will try as hard as they can to avoid enforcement actions against whatever part of the .gov is abusing you.
Me too. Sometimes I see these ideas in science fiction. I remember one black mirror episode where a tech company knows more about a suspect than the police. It's really unnerving watching them casually reveal all sorts of information, even the authorities seemed surprised.
Even worse is thinking about the resources governments have and the numberless ways they can abuse these powers.