Welp, it was a DARPA project to beign with, so yes. I have come to believe it was a long con, getting us all to give our info even simply by buying things, creating accounts. At first there were promises of privacy, and the ability to maintain some semblance of it -- but look how all that has been eroded and exploited. Look at our dependence on it and our devices.

I remember trying to tell people about Echelon and Carnivore in the late 90s, and the conspiracy-eyerolls I got were many. Those two things look like a game of pre-K tag compared to what is going on now.