Must read Article: I'm Being Followed - How Google and 104 Other Companies Are Tracking Me on the Web (via The Atlantic)

A couple of interesting finds in this piece below: a) we should probably be able to prevent even the collection of data online (not just its use) b) anonymity means little in a world where numbers are names, too.

Read and think...

I'm Being Followed: How Google—and 104 Other Companies—Are Tracking Me on the Web - Atlantic

"If a company can follow your behavior in the digital environment — an environment that potentially includes your mobile phone and television set — its claim that you are “anonymous” is meaningless. That is particularly true when firms intermittently add off-line information such as shopping patterns and the value of your house to their online data and then simply strip the name and address to make it “anonymous.” It matters little if your name is John Smith, Yesh Mispar, or 3211466. The persistence of information about you will lead firms to act based on what they know, share, and care about you, whether you know it is happening or not...."

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• THE GUARDIAN: The end of online privacy? (blogrunner.com)
• The Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights: Are We the Consumers, Or Are We the Product? (mediafuturist.com)
• Being tracked by Google isn't bad - it's actually good (gigaom.com)