firefox, trackers and ghostery

[rikona]

I agree that this is an important topic that needs to be discussed.
Although I'm not a great fan for off-topic discussions, I will make an
exception for this case.

Hello Sajan,

Wednesday, July 17, 2013, 12:24:00 AM, Sajan wrote:

> Everyone has a right to be mad about all of this. Just direct it
> toward the ones doing it secretly.

It depends on what you mean by secretly. Do you give people an
opportunity to see everything you know about them, and correct or
eliminate things they want changed? If not, then you're being as
secretive as anyone else, and you should not be surprised if people
take offense at what you do.

> When you enter into any transaction with another entity (monetary or
> not), you give that other entity a right to take a remember
> information about you.

I don't "give" them that right - they may take it even if I don't want
them to. There is a difference.

> Even then, I don't think anyone should have any reasonable
> expectation of your visit to a web page being private.

Why not? If I go to a website regarding sensitive medical information
or other very private information, I do not want that spread around to
whoever wants it. It IS private! 

> I mean seriously, what is it that everyone is complaining about?

What people are complaining about is the ability to aggregate enormous
amounts of diverse data which, when combined by sophisticated
software, may produce a more comprehensive and accurate picture of
someone that even their closest companions may not know. NOT good!

> On the internet, we like to store data as long as possible because
> trends over the course of years and soon, decades, matters.

Yes, that's exactly why the Internet is so much more dangerous to
privacy than your example of a single person in a movie theater
watching you as you enter the theater. 

> Really? "private eye chasing me around for a week", is that really
> how you would characterize what is actually happening? That's the
> over hyping that I'm referring to.

Not quite. It is more like the private eye has been chasing me around
for months and perhaps even years. The software and the data does
essentially the same thing that the private eye does, so it's not
really overhyping at all.

> I just wish they didn't see people like me who use Google Analytics
> and other tracking software companies as the bad guys. We have no
> interest in sharing our hard earned data with other organizations.
> We keep it private to ourselves (and the company we use to retrive
> it obviously) so that we can make a better product for our
> customers.

But you do. You share it with Google - one of the infamous "third
parties" that everyone mentions in their privacy statement. And if you
go to those websites, they also share it with additional third parties
who then share it with even more third parties. So your private
information can actually end up in dozens of places, some of which you
don't even know about.

> No, the only people you should be angry about are complete third
> parties. So far, only the US Defense Department. They are the only
> ones collecting data that have no reason or right to.

Again, can I easily see everything that these dozens of third parties
know about me? If not, then it is a secret, at least for me. 

> Thanks,
> Sajan Parikh

Good topic you brought up...

Thanks

-- 

 rikona