firefox, trackers and ghostery

[pete smout]

> 
> Don't be too hard on Sajan. He is trying to think of himself as a good
> person even though he is doing things that many find quite obnoxious.
> He seems to have absolutely no concept of how important privacy is to
> many people, and thus feels it is okay to be as invasive as he would
> like.                 
> 
Agreed from his point of view what he is doing is perfectly sensible and
logical, he is using all the tools available to him to improve the
service offered to his customers, and lets be honest, who wouldn't!

The issue is that that data does not belong to him, it 'belongs' to
Google (read the T's & C's) and that is where the problems start! This
is not a personal attack on anyone or any one organization, but a
general discussion that affects anyone who uses the internet!

This issue is as far a I can tell an unintended consequence of us all
leaving a digital trail of breadcrumbs everywhere we go online, with
some enterprising corporations with a giant vacuum sucking them up.

When this info is gathered up and used in conjunction with your mobile
phone data (GPS, SMS etc) they often know more about you than you do!

Will anything be done about it? I'm afraid that I think not, no matter
how much we kick and scream all the powers-that-be like power and
'information is power'!

It wont be long before we all live in a virtual Panopticon where every
move we make is monitored by unseen guards.

It is such a sad state of affairs when what we all saw as a great chance
for 'freedom' is actually being used for the reverse.

Pete