Nothing you do is anonymous.
That is not comforting.
Yet true.
As you know, Edward Snowden is the former NSA contractor who leaked national secrets to expose the reach, or overreach, of our government as it pertains to information privacy. Whatever you believe of Mr. Snowden, traitor or patriot, he elucidates a very solid point most of us already knew… they are watching us.
The Kardashians are the beautiful Armenian family from Calabasas who live their lives in the public eye for a purpose. They need us to watch them… and we do in droves.
Whenever I am on the Internet, I try to find a balance somewhere in between these two Disparates.
For me, there is the voice of reason in my head which says, “You still need the Saucony Ride 7s from Zappos so let’s not get too crazy here.”
And there it is in a nutshell… the balance one must strike between placing personal, private information on the Internet to save time or obtain the item you need versus the requisite amount of personal information you are willing to reveal.
In my mind, I would never place my social security number and phone number along with my other information together on a site; it is just too sacred. Yet a plethora of sites want you to do just that before they give you their carrot, whatever that is, usually a quote of some sort. It is simply not prudent, the Internet is not safe, and data is being collected on you all the time. I believe this type of paranoia is healthy.
Is Zappos selling my information? Yes, I believe they are. Is Zappos re-directing? Of course. Why do the blue suede Tod’s loafers come up when I am on my fantasy football site? Because these internet people are really frickin’ smart. They have figured out how to locate us, track us, stay in front of us, and follow us by what we do on the Internet.
My point is simple…
Tony Hsieh and Zappos are not bad people.
You must find your own personal happy place somewhere between Edward Snowden and the Kardashians when it comes to your personal private information on the Internet.
Because being anonymous ain’t easy.