Google’s Earth: how the tech giant is helping the state spy on us

We knew that being connected had a price - our data. But we didn't care. Then it turned out that Google's main clients included the military and intelligence agencies. By Yasha Levine

The internet surrounds us. It mediates modern life, like a giant, unseen blob that engulfs the modern world. There is no escape, and, as Larry Page and Sergey Brin so astutely understood when they launched Google in 1998, everything that people do online leaves a trail of data. If saved and used correctly, these traces make up a goldmine of information full of insights into people on a personal level as well as a valuable read on larger cultural, economic and political trends.

Google was the first internet company to fully leverage this insight and build a business on the data that people leave behind. But it wasn't alone for long. It happened just about everywhere, from the smallest app to the most sprawling platform.