Beware the Privacy Conspiracy

Privacy conspiracies are all the rage this week. First came the news that the Government is accessing phone records from Verizon. Then came the speculation that there had to be other companies involved. Finally, came the news of PRISM, a NSA and FBI program that times directly into the servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies. The goal of the purported program is to track foreign terror targets by means of audio and video chats, photographs, emails, documents and connections logs.

This afternoon Google’s Larry Page responded on his blog that he knew nothing about PRISM until yesterday. He wrote, in a posting entitled “What The…” that Google had not provided access to its servers nor was there a so-called “back door” that the government could use to infiltrate the system. That echoes what Apple had to say about PRISM. For his part, President Obama said that what was in place was limited and legal.

Hmmm. If I were a conspiracist, I would say that there was a lot of denial going on here. In the world of conspiracy, a denial serves as greater proof that the conspiracy exists. If I sound a bit jaded, I am. For many years, I was an investigative reporter. I chased conspiracies. There was usually less than met the eye. Sometimes there was something. Most often there was nothing. A couple of times I found myself chasing my tail over a great story that went nowhere. Once or twice I was even wrong (gasp!).

There are a few rules when it comes to conspiracies. First, never underestimate the power of coincidence. Yes, coincidences do happen. They actually happen more often than full blown conspiracies. Second, connect the dots. When putting together a conspiracy you have to connect the dots. All of them. In order. Mistakes happen when you make leaps of logic, even small leaps. Third, it’s really hard to keep a conspiracy a secret. Yes, there are and have been big conspiracies. But do you realize how many people have to keep a secret to keep a conspiracy secret, especially when it’s a really good story?

So, what do I make of the story? It’s a damn good story. It might even be true. Most likely there are parts of it that are true. It’s not necessarily an all or nothing game. In the meantime, the coverage is certainly breathless. Four words … and a caveat. “Don’t believe the hype.” And here’s the caveat, “not yet.”

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