zlacker

A lot of people have an abstract idea that information is being collected, yes. I suspect that few people realize or know what the amount of information is, who has access to it, what purposes they use it for.

Does anyone remember that angry email they sent 5 years ago where they were criticizing their boss? Google does. What kind of profile can you build from thousands and thousands of such emails, messages and queries, and location data and pictures, videos, actions on social networks?

I think some companies have a better idea about who some people are than those people themselves.

>>blub+(OP)
And thanks to this technology, people can understand themselves better, if they choose to. It's truly bizzare that some people instead take away that the right way to "correct" this discrepancy is for companies to know less.

>>caskan+YU
Why do you find that bizarre? Given the asymmetry of resources and conflicting interests between people and the companies who know so much about them, it seems perfectly reasonable to want companies to know less. The vast majority of that knowledge is used to take from the consumer, not to give.

>>nitrog+Ro1
It's not a zero sum game.

Good companies use information they collect to provide better services. Bad companies use it to rip people off. The problem of bad companies doing bad things is independent of companies having information about people.

>>caskan+t82
The arguments for information control are similar to those for anything else -- less [x] floating around, less potential for abuse.

>>nitrog+rp3
And that argument by itself is not enough to restrict anything. Less hats floating around, less potential for abuse. Less televisions floating around, less potential for abuse.