After a federal judge ordered Apple to help the FBI break into the encrypted iPhone used by the San Bernardino attackers, Apple's CEO Tim Cook issued a defiant letter pledging to oppose the order. Developing a "backdoor" into smartphone data, Cook wrote, would undermine data protection for consumers of tech products. Google's CEO Sundar Pichai echoed the same concern: Encryption protects people, and compliance with the court order would "compromise users' privacy." The entire tech industry seems to be on a mission, fighting tooth and nail to protect consumers' privacy.

This is awfully rich. The industry that makes a highly profitable living off of people's data, now parading as the crusader of privacy.

Let's get a few basic facts right. Apple, Google, Facebook, and other voices in the righteous band that has spontaneously formed to fend off government data prying, are not in the business of data protection. Privacy is not what they sell. On the contrary, it is the biggest threat to their business. Despite what they now claim in court proceedings or to the media concerning their commitment to users' privacy, Apple is in the business of platforms for data mining and data trading. Much of the value of Apple's devices and of many other tech firms owes to the widespread practice that they cultivate -- collecting users' information and selling it to other commercial entities, all for large (and well-earned) profits. The amount of information the tech giants collect and sell to advertisers and other business partners is orders of magnitude greater than the amount of information the government is seeking.

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