[...] Laws prevent the government from collecting certain kinds of information on citizens, but data brokers are not so constrained. And once someone else has collected that information, little stops the government from buying it, demanding it, or even hacking into it.

Our off- and online actions are logged in hundreds of private-sector databases. Aptly called “big brother’s little helpers” by privacy expert Chris Hoofnagle, private-sector data brokers gather files that police would never be able to gather on their own, and then sell them to the police. This is not a “bug” in our surveillance system, but a “feature.” Note that the very definition of fusion centers includes their willingness to receive information from private parties. The Snowden leaks make the shared infrastructure of state and private data collection incontrovertible. Never again can data deregulationists claim that corporate data collection is entirely distinct and far less threatening than government surveillance. They are irreversibly intertwined.