In their own words.

"We collect the content, communications and other information you provide when you use our Products, including when you sign up for an account, create or share content, and message or communicate with others. This can include information in or about the content you provide, such as the location of a photo or the date a file was created."

"We also receive information about you from partners, like advertisers who create their ads and businesses that use our products, including information from websites and apps that use our technologies. These partners provide information such as your email address or information about your device."

$1.4 billion settlement paid to Texas for collecting biometric data from users without consent. Equivalent to approximately three hours of revenue.

87 million Facebook accounts harvested without consent by Cambridge Analytica for political targeting. Mark Zuckerberg testified to Congress that he was unaware of the data practices.

Meta announced the removal of end-to-end encryption from Instagram private messages in March 2026. Every message previously considered private between two people — readable, available, usable.

"We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content."

"We collect information about the device you use to access the Platform, such as your IP address, user agent, mobile carrier, time zone settings, identifiers for advertising purposes, model of your device, the device system, network type, device IDs, your screen resolution and operating system, app and file names and types, keystroke patterns or rhythms, battery state, audio settings and connected audio devices."

$5.7 million FTC fine for illegally collecting personal information from children under 13.

ByteDance employees in China were documented accessing US user data. Multiple engineers confirmed in leaked audio recordings that "everything is seen in China."

Google was found to have tracked location data even when users had explicitly disabled location tracking. $391.5 million settlement with 40 US states, 2022.

€150 million fine for making it difficult to refuse cookies.
€60 million fine for placing advertising cookies without consent.

Google acquired Fitbit in 2021 for $2.1 billion, acquiring health data — heart rate, sleep patterns, menstrual cycles, exercise, weight — for hundreds of millions of users.

"When you use voice features, we process your voice input in the cloud to respond to your request."

Amazon Ring provided footage to law enforcement more than 2,000 times in the first half of 2022 without a warrant and without user notification.

Thousands of Amazon employees listen to Alexa voice recordings to improve the assistant. Users are not clearly told this happens.

Researchers purchased location data from a broker for a small sum and used it to track the movements of EU officials inside NATO headquarters in Brussels. No hacking. No warrant. Data purchased commercially. Available to anyone who wanted to pay for it.

A Nebraska mother was prosecuted in 2022 using private Facebook messages between her and her daughter about the daughter's abortion. Police obtained the messages via a warrant served on Facebook. The messages were provided.

Palantir Technologies received approximately $970 million in US federal contracts in 2025. The same company received $4.4 million in 2009. In 2024 Palantir was awarded a $30 million contract to build ImmigrationOS for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

CEO Alex Karp stated the company's goal is "creating a monopoly over AI decision-making."

Clearview AI has scraped more than 30 billion images from the internet without consent and sells facial recognition access to law enforcement agencies in multiple countries. Police forces have begun tracking individuals by body shape and clothing patterns to bypass legal restrictions on facial recognition.

Traffic to Wikipedia articles on topics monitored by the Department of Homeland Security dropped approximately 30% in the month after the Snowden revelations and continued to decline. 1 in 5 Americans reported avoiding certain online activities due to surveillance concerns.