Easy-to-use personal security measures are a welcome antidote to the privacy fears that plague a post-PRISM scandal world. But are encrypted text messages a necessity, or just a fan to the flames of a paranoia epidemic?

“Google policy is to get right up to the 'creepy' line and not cross it,” says the company's CEO. But when does insightful personalisation become intrusive? And how do brands build lasting relationships with consumers concerned about being spied on?

Intelligent 'predictive' assistant Google Now is set to irreversibly change the way we interact with the web. Yet, riddled with privacy and ethical concerns, the reality is not so simple.

Andrew Keen bemoans the end of privacy as a consequence of the social web – “Human happiness is really about being left alone,” he argues in Wired. We talk about these ideas at the Jeremy Bentham pub. Where else?