This different to prisons in that these firms have skills that the US Government have that are way better than US government... The software to find a person who is likely to bomb is very similar to the like to buy a product.... That type of software has been vastly increasing in the last decade...Biden Wants to Outsource Spying on Americans to Private Firms
A pretty interesting position to take even as he calls for the closing of all prisons run by private firms! They can spy on us just not lock us up? What are the chances that Joe will pass a law declaring that these spy agencies have to be equally dispersed between left wing and right wing people?
So the question should be? Do we want it? Personally I think not but as long as there is media/forums that sensationalise and scare the crap out of people this will happen... This is a non partisan issue... People are scared by a load of things, US Politicians are really only reacting to that concern..
EU have a very different approach... You rights as an individual to privacy is considered very high... They would never let government or corporations that kind of access... In Europe the citizens have a healthy distrust both Government and Corporations... Corporations have easily the more distrust. Most EU countries a far more democratic and feel they have far more control of their governments than US..