Privacy is dead: So what if you friended the NSA?

I'm not sure what annoys me more: That the National Security Agency can tap into every major Internet service and telecom carriers and monitor everything you do online or that I just can't get wound up about it.

The National Security Agency (NSA) can analyze all your online data, reports the Washington Post. The NSA also has backdoor access to Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Skype and Apple to name a few. In other words, the NSA has the knowledge of just about everything digital. Naturally, the NSA program has been a secret---and now even some of the companies involved are denying knowledge of the data analysis effort.

In the tech world, the NSA's actions are a big deal. Privacy doesn't exist! Gasp! Oh the horror of the realization that the U.S. isn't much different than China or any other country that will monitor your behavior.

Why do I have a hunch that after a few Congressional hearings and blowhard legislators trying to score points that this will be forgotten?

Sure, there could be brand risks to the companies involved, but what are we really going to do? Are we really going to refrain from using Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Apple products in the name of privacy? Of course not. Hell, most of us drooling shiny device object loving fools share everything anyway. Let's face it: The NSA is no different than that jackass you can't remember and friended anyway.

So what if the NSA can monitor what you do? Considering most people can't figure out Facebook's privacy settings my dog can monitor you too.

Do I sound cynical? You bet. The government does that to people. Overall, this NSA disaster isn't all that surprising. The Internet is the new phone line, which oh by the way has been tapped by the NSA too.

What's next? Pols everywhere will scream about the NSA. There will be hearings. Politics will be played. As for the rest of us, we'll go back to doing what we did before. Share, overshare and communicate like nothing happened. Monitoring isn't so bad as long as you accept privacy doesn't exist. We're all public figures. Just ask the NSA.

More:

• FBI, NSA said to be secretly mining data from nine U.S. tech giants
• NSA 'top secret' spying order affects millions of Americans: FAQ
• Verizon records vacuumed up by NSA under 'top secret' Patriot Act order

Also see:

• GigaOm: How the NSA analyzes all that call data
• Washington Post: The NSA slides
• Quartz: Twitter boosts privacy cred