Jim Rockford Warned Us About Google And Facebook Back In 1978

[Dave Monroe]

Why didn't we listen? The fourth season of The Rockford Files,
arguably the greatest television show of all time, features a
"futuristic" storyline about a terrible threat. What if a private
corporation used computers to gather personal information on hundreds
of millions of Americans? Could we trust them with that data?

I know, it's hard to imagine such a thing ever happening — a private
company, collecting private and personal data on ordinary Americans
and other people around the world. It sounds far-fetched, right? But
Jim Rockford, the toughest and most incorruptible P.I. ever to live in
a trailer with his dad, teams up with a younger detective to
investigate the suspicious death of an old friend, a private detective
named Tooley, in the episode "The House on Willis Avenue." (This
episode is written by the show's co-creator, Stephen J. Cannell, who
also gave us The Greatest American Hero.)

And what Rockford finds in his investigation is baffling — a
mysterious set of real estate developments, with lots of suspiciously
huge air-conditioning units attached. What's going on? Turns out that
a corporate scumbag, amusingly played by Jackie Cooper, is creating a
secret computer system to spy on ordinary Americans and sell the info
— or ruin your reputation — for profit. It should be illegal for
corporations to spy on ordinary Americans, Rockford protests. You can
see the highlights above.

It all leads up to this solemn cue card at the very end of the episode:

[...]

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