Lawmakers: Fear Silicon Valley and data brokers, not NSA

Voters should be much more concerned about what private companies are collecting on them than about the National Security Agency, say several congressional defenders of the agency’s surveillance programs.

Silicon Valley firms, retailers, and behind-the-scenes “data brokers” all collect information on individual Americans in ways that could raise privacy concerns, yet these groups have largely escaped the raging debate focused on what the government collects. “It’s just the irony of this whole debate,” said Rep Mike Rogers (R-MI), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a prominent defender of the NSA. “I mean it’s unbelievable what private companies collect from individuals and how they track them and track what their shopping habits are and where they may or may not be and how they shop,” he said. “All of that is collected. The NSA doesn’t do anything like that at all.”