Are you bothered by the amount of information Google is able to
amass about you? Browsing habits, tastes, bank details and dozens
of other bits of personal data are able to be directly or
indirectly gleaned from what you do online. As Google are getting
involved in so many different web services, it is clear that they
are capable of being privy to stuff we haven’t even thought
about!

But is it a problem for you?

It isn’t a problem for me. The reduction in so-called privacy is
inevitable. If Google aren’t gathering it, then other people are.

Heck, even my supermarket keeps a file on every item I’ve ever
bought from them. And there is a lot they can glean from my
choice of toilet paper!

I feel the same way about Google knowing everything about me as I
do about the UK government’s proposal to introduce identity
cards, or the idea of being on a DNA database: I really don’t
care. I have nothing to hide.

I have never really ‘got’ the human rights people’s complaints
that these things are bad.

I mean, if having everyone on a DNA database means that a
murderer or rapist is caught quicker then I’m all for it. I’ll
happily swap the possible threat to my privacy for saving someone
else from becoming a victim of a monster.

The only negative I’ve heard about DNA databases is that one day,
an insurance company *might* get hold of the data and refuse me
medical cover because I have a genetic disorder I didn’t know
about.

I don’t think it is beyond the wit of those who govern to
legislate against that possibility.

I digress.

Yes, Google may have vast databanks of info about each one of us.
But they are not the only ones.

A friend of mine used to work for a company that collects,
consolidates and analyses data about individual consumers from
mailing lists, questionnaires, competition entries and thousands
of other offline sources.

You simply wouldn’t believe how much they already know about each
and every one of us.

They can even make assumptions about the way we think or act from
information they hold about our neighbors!

And yes, they sell all that data to anyone who wants to pay for
it.

Living in the Information Age has its consequences. The
redefinition of personal privacy is one of them.

So I’m not bothered. And even if I was, there isn’t a darned
thing I could do about it short of cutting the wires to the
Internet, crushing my cellphone, moving to a tent in the
wilderness and removing myself from the 21st century completely.

Living off the grid might sound like fun, but it would pretty
soon get very cold and very hungry. And very, very dull.

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