Privacy for Sale
I always prefer you read an article and make up your own mind without influence from me or anyone else, but just a question here ...
If our "fears" generate processes which invade our privacy to a point it becomes unwieldy - so inconvenient we seek ways around that "invasion of privacy" which gives incentive to commerce to sell us a service to maintain our privacy, is it not as easy, or easier, for criminals - even terrorists - to purchase the same products ? When the crooks can pay to hide their activities, defeating costly government efforts to monitor and track our movements, then is the expense of government monitoring worth the cost ?
. . . . . . .
Privacy for Sale
How to buy online anonymity.
By Adam L. Penenberg
Posted Tuesday,SLATE Nov. 1, 2005, at 1:34 PM ET
"When you surf the Internet, you leave footprints everywhere you go. Google conceivably knows every term you've searched for and every e-mail you've sent and received. Cookies greet you when you return to a site and track your movements when you stay within its pages or visit affiliated sites. Your ISP knows who you are and where you live or work whenever you get online.
This tracking continues far from your computer. The hundreds of publicly and privately owned surveillance cameras within a 10-block radius of my office capture my image when I buy a falafel or read a book in Washington Square Park. If you talk on a cell phone or send text messages from your PDA, your provider knows where you are. The same goes for when you pay for socks with a credit card or get cash from an ATM.
As the battle to provide ads better-targeted to online consumers intensifies, our information becomes more valuable to online marketers and publishers. Web surfers also fear that identity thieves are on the prowl for their personal data. The government is a potential bogeyman, too: As fears over terrorism intensify, the feds may find your personal data irresistible. In 2003, Congress scuttled the Total Information Awareness program, which would have enabled the Pentagon to mine millions of public and private records to search for indications of terrorist activity. But that doesn't mean the effort to combine databases has stalled—it's just been redirected.
So, how can we protect ourselves? We're going to have to pay for it. In the same way we fork over a few extra bucks a month for caller ID block and an unlisted phone number, we'll pay for anonymity in other areas. Privacy has become a commodity. The more our personal information gets out there, and the more valuable it becomes, the more incentive there will be for companies to shield it on our behalf. "
. . .
Read entire article: http://www.slate.com/id/2129114/
Related in Slate
Last year, Paul Boutin wrote about the silly privacy fears that surrounded Google's Gmail. In 2002, Dan Simon explained how e-mail security works.
Adam L. Penenberg is an assistant professor at New York University and assistant director of the business and economic reporting program in the school's department of journalism. You can e-mail him at penenberg@....
If our "fears" generate processes which invade our privacy to a point it becomes unwieldy - so inconvenient we seek ways around that "invasion of privacy" which gives incentive to commerce to sell us a service to maintain our privacy, is it not as easy, or easier, for criminals - even terrorists - to purchase the same products ? When the crooks can pay to hide their activities, defeating costly government efforts to monitor and track our movements, then is the expense of government monitoring worth the cost ?
. . . . . . .
Privacy for Sale
How to buy online anonymity.
By Adam L. Penenberg
Posted Tuesday,SLATE Nov. 1, 2005, at 1:34 PM ET
"When you surf the Internet, you leave footprints everywhere you go. Google conceivably knows every term you've searched for and every e-mail you've sent and received. Cookies greet you when you return to a site and track your movements when you stay within its pages or visit affiliated sites. Your ISP knows who you are and where you live or work whenever you get online.
This tracking continues far from your computer. The hundreds of publicly and privately owned surveillance cameras within a 10-block radius of my office capture my image when I buy a falafel or read a book in Washington Square Park. If you talk on a cell phone or send text messages from your PDA, your provider knows where you are. The same goes for when you pay for socks with a credit card or get cash from an ATM.
As the battle to provide ads better-targeted to online consumers intensifies, our information becomes more valuable to online marketers and publishers. Web surfers also fear that identity thieves are on the prowl for their personal data. The government is a potential bogeyman, too: As fears over terrorism intensify, the feds may find your personal data irresistible. In 2003, Congress scuttled the Total Information Awareness program, which would have enabled the Pentagon to mine millions of public and private records to search for indications of terrorist activity. But that doesn't mean the effort to combine databases has stalled—it's just been redirected.
So, how can we protect ourselves? We're going to have to pay for it. In the same way we fork over a few extra bucks a month for caller ID block and an unlisted phone number, we'll pay for anonymity in other areas. Privacy has become a commodity. The more our personal information gets out there, and the more valuable it becomes, the more incentive there will be for companies to shield it on our behalf. "
. . .
Read entire article: http://www.slate.com/id/2129114/
Related in Slate
Last year, Paul Boutin wrote about the silly privacy fears that surrounded Google's Gmail. In 2002, Dan Simon explained how e-mail security works.
Adam L. Penenberg is an assistant professor at New York University and assistant director of the business and economic reporting program in the school's department of journalism. You can e-mail him at penenberg@....
posted by JamesB at 9:00 AM
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