God Google

Will people who grow up with pervasive analysis by big data companies such as Google and Facebook worship those companies as God?

Some have expressed positive feelings towards knowing that something out there cares about their interests, even if it's Google. Such feelings may be correlated with loneliness and depression, but nonetheless they are reminiscent of the conversation with the AI Morpheus in Deus Ex:

Morpheus: Human beings feel pleasure when they are watched. I have recorded their smiles as I tell them who they are.
JC Denton: Some people just don't understand the dangers of indiscriminate surveillance.
Morpheus: The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality with data-mining algorithms.
JC Denton: Electronic surveillance hardly inspires reverence. Perhaps fear and obedience, but not reverence.
Morpheus: God and the gods were apparitions of observation, judgment and punishment. Other sentiments towards them were secondary.
JC Denton: No one will ever worship a software entity peering at them through a camera.
Morpheus: The human organism always worships. First, it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgment of others), next it will be self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipresent observation and judgment.
JC Denton: You underestimate humankind's love of freedom.

Morpheus: The individual desires judgment. Without that desire, the cohesion of groups is impossible, and so is civilization.

Prescient? There have been times in my life when I was immersed in religious culture. Based on those experiences, it would not surprise me if Morpheus is correct about what awaits us in the foreseeable future.​ Those of us that love freedom and take risks to seek it are the minority.