Do you (or have you) worked for Google, Facebook, or any company that derives a significant portion of revenue from ads? Perhaps we should question the value of services if people aren't willing to pay for them.
Tracking people as they use the internet should be a crime. It's not something most people are even conscious about, and I think they'd be outraged if they knew someone was always looking over their shoulder.
The longer we let this go unchecked, the further our privacy erodes and the claws of the surveillance state sink in.
i really don't see any harm in tracking. What are people afraid of? the article was not in any way able to show how it harms people.
When you go to the starbucks, and the waiter recognizes you and remembers your name, is that creepy? What if they remember that your usual drink is a latte and remembers that the next time you come is that creepy? What if, heaven forbid, they tell a coffee company that you like dark roast, and now you receive an advertisement brochure in the mail for a dark roast coffee you wanted to buy anyways.
I really don't see the harm. Is it the fact that they have the info? or is it what they might do with it?
are people worried about embarrassing websites they've visted? I get that. But, for that you just use incognito mode.
I don't want to have a personal relationship with merchants, but I especially don't want their marketing panopticon piecing together the lives of Americans.
> But, for that you just use incognito mode.
That doesn't work. Fingerprinting can still track you.
I always thought that if the government wants to get you, then they'll definitely get you. The powers of government are already so vast, Not having your browsing history won't stop them one bit.
There's quite a difference of scale between the staff of a particular shop knowing what I'm up to when at that shop, but nothing else, and what amounts to automated surveillance tracking me around vast swathes of my (online) life and trying to aggregate everything together in one single profile.
Tracking people as they use the internet should be a crime. It's not something most people are even conscious about, and I think they'd be outraged if they knew someone was always looking over their shoulder.
The longer we let this go unchecked, the further our privacy erodes and the claws of the surveillance state sink in.
Succinctly: fuck tracking.