Google and Facebook want you to have all your personal data in one place. Which is, of course, their place. They want your work identity and gaming handles and forum pseudonyms, your circle of friends and your hobbies, your medical records and your browsing history, your sexual orientation and your religious affiliation, your credit card number and a scan of your photo ID, a StreetView shot of your house and a satellite photo of your backyard.

They’re going to read your emails, run your photos through facial recognition software (even if you don’t provide them to Google, their image search will track them down and analyze them), and rummage through your shopping cart. Then they’ll connect all the dots and sell the final picture. To whom? You’ll never know. It might be your employer, your airline company, your health insurance provider, your government, or the people who own your government. Or the evil internet overlords. Oh wait… that’ll be Google. They’ll already have all your data. And if you don’t play ball, Google’s CEO will insinuate that you have something to hide.

Everybody is screaming for a net-wide online identification system that is supposed to end all online fraud and antisocial behavior. Google strives to provide just that and then some, and so does Facebook. There is an increasing number of websites and online communities that won’t let you comment or otherwise participate without providing your Facebook or G+ name. Say goodbye to privacy, anonymity, and security from crazy stalkers (such as the ones that work for your government, or the right-wing groups who keep tabs on gay activists with Google’s help).

There will be no such thing as the Egyptian revolution in the Western World. No anonymous political activists, no more whistleblowers, no protests organized on Twitter. Google will know your Twitter identity, and so will any government agency who subpoenas or buys this information. And even if people manage to organize a rally, public surveillance cameras will easily identify them thanks to facial recognition software and the photos which they themselves have willingly provided to Google.

Does that sound paranoid? Probably. But imagine someone were to travel back to the year 1984 (oh the bitter irony) and tell people about full-body scanners, random notebook searches, cell phone tracking software, wiretapping under the patriot act, and waterboarding. It would sound like a dystopian conspiracy theory to them and might be even harder to believe than any of the above. And yet it has long become everyday business for us. What’s worse, very few seem to care. People easily accommodate themselves to these privacy violations and even gain a false sense of security from them, which makes it easy for faceless corporations like Google to take over the web under the pretense of making it safer and easier.