Russ Roberts of EconTalk did an interesting interview with security expert Bruce Schneier in the days between the Boston Marathon bombings and the Snowden leaks. Schneier suggested back then that the NSA might be using its Utah data center to spy on all Americans, but he couldn’t say conclusively. I’m not nearly as informed as Schneier is, but I thought it was definitely going on. And I don’t know that new legislation will ever make it go away, not with the ever-improving tools we have at our disposal. Just a couple more of the interesting topics from the podcast:

• Google could in theory use its search capacity to try to tip an election. If it willfully returned more negative articles about one candidate over many months, it might have some influence. And it wouldn’t be illegal, any more than it is for Fox News to slant the news in favor of conservatives. It’s not mentioned on the show, but there are market forces that might prevent this from happening. Whereas Fox has a niche (if very profitable) audience, Google’s “audience” is every person, and it can’t alienate a large section of them. Still, not impossible.

• Corporate spying on American citizens is driven by many of the same forces that led to our economic collapse. Managers within corporations may be enticed by short-term bonuses to cross lines, not worrying about the big picture of the company because of their own personal goals for themselves. Despite Mitt Romney’s claim, corporations are not people but are run by many of them who have conflicting goals.