Interesting article from Lifehacker today -> If You’re Not Paying for It; You’re the Product. It basically goes on to say that we pay for services like Google Docs, Digg, etc. with our own personal information.
It must be that I’m from the new generation - but to me, I just don’t care. I don’t care that Google knows what I’m searching for. I don’t care if Google knows what blogs I read. Google even knows who my friends are and who I e-mail most frequently - and that doesn’t bother me. I think that the new generation realizes that whatever is put on the internet is, pretty much, publicly available. In fact, a lot of things we openly share via Facebook or Twitter. Some of us have blogs where we share thoughts that would’ve been kept private 20 years ago.
How much is our private information worth? Why is it private? Does it need to be private? Are we getting closer to Big Brother? I’m not sure. It seems as though we are… but I don’t know that I’m willing to give up using the internet to keep my information private, at this point. What will be the point where it becomes too much? I’m not sure.