On the back of the Edward Snowden revelations, more of us are becoming aware of the level and degree of Government/State digital surveillance, and whilst we can accept that there are legitimate reasons for this, e.g. to gather intelligence  of terrorist activities, there is the inevitable concern that this data (our data) may be misused, misappropriated or even sold to third parties. And not forgetting the private sector, where emerging social analytical tools are being used by marketing departments to track our digital trail.

This article reinforces the view that there may ultimately be two classes of consumers using the internet; those who can afford to pay a premium to remain protected and private and those who cannot.   A whole new economy of companies who provide anonymous search, super-encrypted email and document sharing, and protected document storage etc. are blossoming.  Are we approaching the point whereby the Internet will become like an airplane with first class and economy seats? I’m beginning to think so.