I always read this at G4TV.. Mayeb I should turn the TV off..

lol yea Steve, I was doing the same thing lately too. Although G4TV is more fun methinks...

After reading this,

The piecing of all data streams together for "everything and anyone" is very worrying. I'm excited as a marketer but..

[/BEGIN SCARY RANT]

I would be concerned. You no longer have put yellow stars on people, to identify them in order to ship them off to be exterminated. In this nightmare scenario you would need to eliminate all resistance. track down the leaders first block communications, then deal with the sheep later.

Identify the sociopaths to do the job (We know who to profile); Special selection would favor those that can keep their mouths shut for enough money or a holy cause. Just put all that data together! Need to track undesirables? Analyze speech patterns! All that data will be in the cloud! We can use Geo-targeting and categorize locally.

Video pattern recognition with unlimited tools. Find out who they contact (Thanks Facebook! Gmail, Hotmail). You don't even need a job interview, all potential matching candidates matched by the cloud. George Orwell here we come...

[/END SCARY RANT]

Seriously before I put a tinfoil hat on my head, and crawl into a corner gibbering. I would like to propose an old idea. "OPT OUT" any Non-government agency that collects information on us should be required by law to dump the information, if I the customer choose this so be it, or if they do keep information on me it should be transparent.

Companies should in plain (Non EULA) English explain how they use and store your data.

The onus should be on the company to comply or be fined, or sued. OPT OUT should be enshrined in the constitution! (Maybe it is?)

There is also the responsibility to think about your actions and the consequences down the line, so next time you're doing something naughty online think again!

(Putting on my pointy tinfoil hat)

Searchengineman