People may often bristle with indignation of perceived violations of privacy. One might say “It is my right to not have anyone know that I like to shop at this particular store at this particular time!” Or ” I don’t want some corporation stealing my private information for marketing purposes” Or perhaps “the broadcasting of personal information violates our basic constitutional freedoms.”
Yet to what end? Does the dissemination of your consumer habits, your unsavory love for (_insert your favorite taboo shopping itch______) really impinge on your rights?
I don’t think so. So what does it matter to me if corporations trade my user heuristics about the market in order to more adroitly fit me in their marketing crosshairs? For all my searching on google, I have yet to be coerced into buying a product that I do not like.
Does it matter to me if others know where I go to school, how much money I spend on groceries etc? I just could not care in the least, and if my information, in aggregate with the collective observations produced by new media capture information systems, results in more streamlined and efficient transaction which will improve commerce in this country, I will be happy for it.
People may feel as possessive of their information as their material possessions, but the reality is that it is this obsession with possession of “mine, mine, mine!” that is the greatest obstacle to personal freedom.