Privacy

A friend sent me this video about privacy, from the ACLU, that I have seen shown at library conferences. It starts off with a guy ordering pizza, and ends with him stunned to find out how much information about himself is out there and accessible online. It's funny, and it's a little scarey, but I think it misses the point - people are pretty much universally willing to give up a little privacy for the convenience of customized services. I have never really minded that the pizza place has my address in a database connected to my phone number, so as soon as I call they know where the pizza is probably going. And, even though I usually tell online merchants NOT to save my cc infor, and avoid setting up an account whenever I can - I just can't store and remember that many passwords!! - I thought it was pretty cool the only time I bought something online from Target, the web site asked if I wanted to sign in with my Amazon account, and golly there was all my Amazon infor, preferred shipping addresses and all, and all nicely branded to look like Target instead of Amazon.

Come to think of it, I think that Target shopping experience got me ranting about this before ...