On 27/03/12 15:27, mick wrote:
[mega snip of interesting stuff]
(Oh by way of example of what can be done quite legitimately at the moment with publicly available data published on social networking sites, take a look at the appropriately named tool "creepy" at http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy. I worry about the way my kids use social networking sites. But then I'm just an old fart.)
As a similar old fart, I put forward similar arguments on another mail list and somebody responded with the question 'What's different between e.g. Amazon remembering your recent purchases and a shopkeeper (of old, people nowadays don't often do it) remembering your purchases and buying stuff in on the off-chance you might like it?'
I had to agree that I used to like it when shopkeepers did that - yes I am old enough to remember those days - and found it difficult to reconcile my complaint about Amazon and the like then.
I do like your analogy of withdrawing money from a bank though.