In response to the article about Amazon, Bob came up with a very good comment-

Companies kept this sort of information before, that’s before the Internet, or at least as much information as was available to them. They didn’t have the ability to capture as much information quickly and easily and didn’t necessarily have the software to analyze it the way they do today.

Remember when we used the term “paper trail”? Now it’s a digital data trail. If you interact with a company, in any way, shape, or form, you’re going to leave a trail. You can’t escape it by not buying online. Go to a clothing store and they capture all the details of what you bought. If it’s a store you tend to frequent, they have a base of data about your buying habits. Is that a bad thing? In and of itself, not necessarily. If the data escapes, especially more personal details, then yes.

And that’s really the big privacy issue. Not that companies, organizations, institutions, and government know things about you, they always will, but that their security never seems to be enough.

Categories: Tech News