"AJRS" <ajrs@hotmale.com> wrote in news:jnu2u5$1d1$2@speranza.aioe.org:

> Information about privacy on the Internet: Cookies, Referrer Fields,
> adware, etc.
>
>
> Privacy is a big topic, and different people have very different
> feelings about it. And people are not necessarily consistent. For
> instance, Google's Eric Schmidt famously saidthat anyone who wants
> privacy is probably up to no good. Yet an article about Mr. Schmidt's
> divorce quotes "a source" saying that he and his wife are both very
> private.
>
> One way to help clarify privacy issues might be to divide people into
> 3 groups:
>
> Group 1: People who don't care about privacy and don't see what the
> fuss is about.
>
> . Group 2: People who are concerned about privacy, but don't want to
> put a lot of effort into protecting theirs.
>
> . Group 3: People who worry about privacy and do what they can to
> protect theirs.
>
> If you use free webmail (GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo) or free "social
> networking" services (Facebook, Google+, MySpace) then you are
> probably in Group 1 or Group 2. You don't worry about privacy, or at
> least don't care enough to do anything about it. The information here
> will not be of interest to you. If you are in Group 3... this webpage
> is for you. If you are in Group 3 and you also use some of the
> services above, then... this webpage is really for you.
>
> It's probably safe to say that the vast majority of people are in
> Group
> 2. They are somewhat concerned about privacy, but they like
> convenience. They like free services. If privacy means losing any of
> that then they'd rather not think about it. The ostrich approach.
>
> The fact that most people take an ostrich approach goes a long way
> to
> explain the current landscape in terms of online privacy. Big online
> companies are increasingly making big money by exploiting private
> information in a big way. Protecting online privacy, or even gaining
> a basic understanding of the issues, is becoming increasingly
> complex. And most people are ostriches. The result is a kind of
> "Don't ask, don't tell" scenario. People avoid looking under the
> surface of ad-supported online services and those services, in turn,
> are careful to keep the surface looking unsuspicious.
>
> In February, 2012 President Barak Obama's people released a
> fancy-looking Privacy Bill of Rights, made to look like an official
> government document, but saying nothing substantial. Concurrently,
> major browser makers said they will support a "Do Not Track" button
> for browsers... Maybe... Well, actually, not really. Facebook's
> approach has been described as "asking for forgiveness rather than
> permission". They exploit their members, to cash in on targetted
> advertising, as much as they feel they can get away with; then they
> backtrack when there's a backlash. All of this generates vague sounds
> of progress, and that's enough for most people. That's really all the
> ostriches are asking for.
>
> *
>
> More - much more - here:
> http://www.jsware.net/jsware/privacytips.php5
>
> JS

Very interesting site, thanks.


--
Character is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. There are too
many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and
the only thing that's wrong is to get caught. - J.C. Watts