Stop Trusting Geeks Like Obama

Many people are confused by President Obama's relentless prosecution of Bradley Manning, and pursuit of other leakers. Isn't he supposed to be a Silicon Valley-style transparency-loving geek? That view is "charmingly naïve," writes Edward Luce at the Financial Times. "Obama is no traitor to geek culture." Rather, his White House "shares many of the faults and virtues" of its tech industry allies, including "a serene faith in its own good motives."

Obama asks Americans to trust him to maintain a kill list in much the same way Google ask us to trust it with our data, and "it is hard to avoid the suspicion that Mr. Obama's reputation for being a nerd shields him from tougher criticism." And it's no coincidence that the Obama campaign's vaunted voter data gathering operation looks a lot like Facebook's. Perhaps this affinity explains Obama's nonchalance as Big Data turns privacy on its head. But if he cares about his legacy, "he should become wary of geeks bearing gifts." Click for Luce's full column. (More Barack Obama stories.)