1. Just because we are tracked with credit cards it doesn’t mean we have no interest in privacy.
2. One of the biggest issues is the asymmetrical knowledge about who is tracking what and who is buying that information.
3. If presented in a more explicit manner people might be willing to pay for content rather than sell their personal information to all bidders.
4. As always, time will tell. 

As long as the user has the power (independence), we have the right rhythm.

On this topic, I am particularly interested in what winterbagel and Nathan brought up. My two cents: many of the emotional reactions involved here seem to arise as a result of people not realising how much information they are willingly providing when using services, and then finding out in a very surprising and, to them, invasive manner. To be fair, relevant advertising has supported many free services and has done so at _least_ since radio. It’s only now that the use of the service itself can provide phenomenally personal information–which is most visible when this information is used to target ads–that people care.

While I understand this concern, there’s a point where I can’t really empathise because I know that everything I do on the web is potentially freely available information to whatever service I’m using unless promised otherwise. And I know that it can take a LOT of effort to produce these services and it’s only natural that some trade be involved. But perhaps many a layman user has not fully understand how this happens due to the technical complexity of the service and/or lack of transparency on how it works, and this may have engendered a culture of entitlement to the service without provision of anything in return–especially private information! Of course I know it’s not quite as simple as that, I only wanted to pitch in my view of that _part_ of it. I’m optimistic that the industry will indeed continue to improve these systems though; and if they don’t then one way of looking at it is that it leaves an interesting opening in the market!

Appropriately enough, it all reminds me a lot of the start of Chapter 8: Search, Privacy, Government, and Evil in ‘The Search’ so thanks again for that and for this discussion!