DO WE, AS HUMANS (or Aliens posing as human) DEMAND INFORMATION REGARDLESS OF PRIVACY RISKS?

If you think about this for awhile, this issue has a double-edged sword. We want more information, and we want it faster, but when it comes to each individual, we want our privacy.

This dilemma is something Actors face once they make the "Big Break", and are suddenly in demand. While making a huge sum of money it becomes very clear to see what they gave up to stay there. [ed. - in case you were dozing off, "Privacy" is what they lost]

I don't know how many customers I've personally added to our database as a new customer, but when I ask "And your home phone number please?", quite often hear one of two things:

1. "Oh, we have a phone but don't answer it any longer so let me give you my cell number"
2. "We only use our cellphones, so put that down under "Home".

We (my wife and I) haven't had "Landlines" for years now, opting for cell phone use only, as many other people do to avoid crank calls, time-share calls, scammer calls, etc. That is our privacy. If we want to hear from you - we'll give you our numbers.

Another form of privacy is your email address. Not quite as private as a cell phone number, but nonetheless it presents a layer between us and "THEM" [ed. - No. Not the giant ants]. Many people, myself included, have multiple addresses with multiple purposes. Now what if your email addresses were easy to find?

I read an AP story this morning where Google was trying out an experiment where you could do a google search for someones Gmail address - and get it. I'm not crazy about that idea because if it passes, then they'll place that bar a bit farther away, slowly-but-surely eating away at our privacy. Yes - this is an experiment, and yes, you'll have to sign up to be part of it, but something in my gut is hoping this experiment will fail.

'Nuff Said,
Brian