A caller into KQED's show identified as “Bruce in Los Gatos” said he is a long-time serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley who, along with other tech innovators, has invested heavily to develop services, social media, GPS, and mobile apps that give him insight into the behavior and habits of consumers. “We take pride for the most part in doing the best job we can to use the data responsibly and give consumers value around that,” he says.
What concerns him about CISPA and other previous bills that have been under consideration is that the government seems to want to get at that data. “And the courts thus far haven’t been very tough on the government in preventing them from accessing it.”
He also points out that modern technology and services companies legitimately know where and when people travel and with whom they communicate.
“But if the government should choose to start to aggregate and track that data, it’s very concerning. And I would be concerned as a consumer that there aren’t more safeguards in place to prevent the government from just grabbing that data or forcing the companies to turn it over in secret,” he said.