Privacy

Due to the open and sharing nature of the Internet, I am willing to give up some of my privacy in exchange, or as a payment, for services that I enjoy for free. For example, I really enjoy using my free web-based e-mail accounts and I understand that these services can be provided to me at no cost, due to ads that are displayed on the page. Even when one service changed it advertising policy to automatically opt-in its users to receive targeted information, at least an opt-out option was provided to the users.

Recently, though, I have noticed that banner ads have become smarter, and are showing more relevant and targeted information based on previous internet based searches I had performed. Naturally, these banner ads appear in my web based email account. An additional twist is that at least one email service scans the contents of your email in order to display more relevant ads. Since I at least spent a fraction of a second longer looking at these types of targeted ads, I can understand, from a business standpoint, as to why these types of ads should be more successful. However, understanding how the information was obtained to generate these ads could raise some privacy concerns. In order to generate the targeted ads, essentially my ever move online (searches, websites, email, etc.) needs to be collected, stored, and analyzed in one or more locations, and then repackaged into an ad that is pushed down to my email account. I never really knew, or signed up to have, my online activities would be aggregated and be used to try and get me to spend money. [A similar parallel would be receiving snail mail based solely on the areas which establishments (food, clothing, entertainment, leisure, etc.) I physically visited, but never signed up to receive any marketing information.]

Google Latitude

The recent release of Google Latitude is another example of an online service that could raise some privacy concerns. This free service allows users to have their physical location tracked and updated real-time on Google Maps. The information is updated either by the physical location of their web-enabled cell phone or computer.
Almost immediately, privacy concerns where raised.
Here is another good article about why one person is not going to use Google Latitude. However, a little bit of reading on Google Latitude's site about privacy, indicates a number of settings and options that a user can use to limit – or completely disable - the type of information that is displayed on Google Maps. [SIDE NOTE: Maybe Google Latitude is something that could be used to implement my personalized individual traffic collection and update wishes.]

Known No Privacy = Free?
Most of the services online are free of charge and it is my choice to use these services free of monetary charge if I am willing to exchange some of my privacy. I believe the real privacy concerns come when users (1) do not know that information is being collected; and (2) do not have a choice to opt-out; and (3) the information can be used against them in a harmful manner.