Online privacy issues -- what do you think about this statement?

"Consumers are moving toward a trend where they don't care so much about privacy," (David) Ewing (president of San Francisco Consulting Group, a marketing firm) replied. "The case for privacy on the Internet is eroding rapidly."

That's from an article in today's SF Chronicle on issues related to Web 2.0. The whole article is here:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/18/BUG4NPAB4N1.DTL


I think that statement is absolutely false. Nobody -- NOBODY -- I've ever encountered wants less privacy, on the internet or anywhere else. If anything, people I know say they're more concerned than ever, whether it's about targeted marketing campaigns or NSA snooping. And I think that anyone who claims otherwise is either an idiot or a huckster pushing his/her own agenda, such as this marketing dork.

But I could be wrong. Maybe there's a whole new attitude about online privacy. Maybe that's a true statement and people are less concerned about it these days.

So I'd really like to get your take on this.


Thanks,

wp


Edited for clarity

Ewing is selling marketing services, which rely on prying into browsing habits. So he doesn't want any privacy advocates screwing with his profits.

The classic argument of pro-"Patriot Act", or safety nannies. Fourth and Fifth amendments be damned, if you don't have anything to hide, you have no reason to worry. Now, we want to search your house/purse/backpack/pockets/bodycavities. Bend over!

And the fact that this statement goes unchallenged when the reporter could have found any number of dissenting voices gives it a validity it doesn't deserve. I emailed the Chron reporter about that earlier.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts.

wp

It's pure bullshit from a marketing consultant.

A second source confirmation, or an opposing point of view, would have been appropriate, I think. It just disturbs me that this statement goes unchallenged. I assume it's nonsense, but I did consider the possibility that privacy is maybe slipping in importance to a significant number of people. Glad to hear you're not among them, and thanks for weighing in.

wp

privacy. :sarcasm: Sheesh.

The Fourth Amendment is cancelled out by crap like the patriot act and the military commissions act. And apparently even those unconstitutional pieces of shit aren't enough for these vampires, since they've also decided to use the NSA (illegally) as domestic snoops.

But I was wondering if peoples' disgust at being targeted by private sector marketing and sales crapola is as strong as their resistance to governmental intrusion. Do you feel that it's important to resist attacks on privacy no matter their source? Are you less uncomfortable with governmental intrusiveness than you would be with marketing and sales pitches? Or vice versa?

Thanks for responding, btw. I kind of expected DU to oppose that statement, and I'm glad to see that's the case.


wp

solicitors, online solicitors, et al and etc. I do a lot of online shopping and I know that opens me up for a lot of marketing bs that I didn't ask for. I feel that shopping online shouldn't be any different than shopping in a store. Trusted sites (ones I've dealt with for years) get my true email address, all others get one my yahoo addresses.

I don't know if you saw the post the other day that said to google your phone number, I googled mine, and sure enough, there it was. I don't know how they got it, might have been out of the phone book. Just the fact that it was there was disgusting. Thankfully, google gives you the option to have it deleted.

Yeah, I saw that post, googled my number and there it was, along with the address and a fucking map to show people how to further invade my privacy. It's gone now, but you have to assume that there are many other sites, both public and private, where similar information is stored.

It makes me crazy, and doubly so that people aren't screaming from the rooftops, or tarring and feathering marketing execs every other day just to show their disgust.


wp

Your search - ********** - did not match any documents.
;)

businesses, why should we have any say? Maybe the public will care after they've had their identities stolen. Other than that, I have know answers as to why 'we the people' are targets.

...but in general, yes, I think Americans care a bit less about it than in previous decades. Most of us have accustomed ourselves to giving up more and more personal info.

I think that's true in most cases. I'm still resistant to giving my SS# out to businesses who don't need it. Just yesterday, I was filling out forms at a doctors office and the form asked for my SS#. I left the line blank, and nobody complained.

So I think that some of what we give away can just as easily be kept private. However, for things like credit and debit card numbers, there's really no way to know how they're being used. The waiter takes a card to the register; who knows if he's also copying down the number for later use?

Fortunately, life experience tells me the overwhelming majority of people are honest. This doesn't apply to marketeers, however, who must lock their morals and conscience away in a vault before they can do their jobs properly. A particularly loathsome breed.

wp

...and sit and eat Cheetos while the Constitution is metaphorically torched.

"From a business standpoint, it's really nice to work with just one company for your Internet advertising needs,"

"People" don't really count. We're all just basically in the way. We're units within the system, nothing else. We're increasingly 1's and 0's. What needs to be kept private? It's called the Information Age for a reason. The fact that we rabble get to find out information about this and that is a bribe.

At least until we're expected to respond to the latest marketing manipulation by emptying our wallets.

So who's bribing us with little snippets of vanilla information? The feds? Private firms? I'm not sure what you mean.


wp

"At least until we're expected to respond to the latest marketing manipulation by emptying our wallets"

We're between the corporations and the money. We're in the way.

"So who's bribing us with little snippets of vanilla information? The feds? Private firms? I'm not sure what you mean."

I mean the Information Age is for the governments and the corporations of the world. We get the internet and all kinds of information that we don't even know what to do with, but all these databases that pop up allowing the latest marketing manipulation, and TIA(or whatever they call it and whatever form it takes), and whatever else is out there, that is the important stuff. People come and go, the institutions won't die. If I know who sits on the boards of 14 different corporations, all of which have interlocking interests, and who practice conflicts of interest, what does that do? However, if those same corporations know what I buy, they can own my ass. If the NSA, and who knows what other agency, can find out what people are talking about and who they talk to, they can own us. The technology to do so will only get better. We can legislate all the rules we want, but that technology has a job to do. Unless we start banning technology(which we aren't about to start doing), it's an issue we're all going to have to deal with.

I always have to say this; as long as we have the energy to do it. As long as we have the energy to keep building bigger and better, we'll have to deal with it one way or another.

I have nothing to add, which will come as a shock to many on this board.

wp

:)