For how often I see articles talking about the dangers of tech, I’m surprised at the lack of mention for watch_dogs. Sure, its just a silly little Ubisoft game series, but this game series predicted so much of today’s world. The 2nd game is basically propoganda against corporations hoarding so much data, exploring how each of them exploit the world they inhabit. If you haven’t played the game, I highly recommend checking it out just for the intro alone. It might not be real world events or actual statistics, but it sure broke down some of the major problems in the industry into something my 13 year old brain could comprehend when I first played the game.
That NSA data center in Utah has been around since the Bush years. None of it was “new” when watch_dogs came out, it just wasn’t in the public consciousness. Most of the stuff was happening or being developed at the time.