[ale] [OT]I think this is awesome, you may find it scary

[Edward Holcroft]

For me, the problem comes in only when such "behavioral targeting" takes
place behind my back. In the case of gmail, and others like it, I view it
as a quid pro quo. I understand that I am not getting a free mail service -
the price I pay is access to my valuable content. As long as I am the one
making that choice, and I aware of the price, all is well.

I agree with Ron in a general sense that nobody but the recipients have any
rational business reading my mail. But I am under no illusions as to who
the recipients are, or could potentially be. And it's not the same people
that the sender may believe they are. Send a "private" e-mail and you have
effectively lost control of who receives it after that. Imho, the very
concept of being able to privately communicate with anyone is fundamentally
flawed. Except of course if you're only communicating with that other
person that lives inside your head. That may well remain private. Perhaps.

When I was a signaler in the military, secret communications were tied to a
time period for action - the more secret the communication, the shorter the
time period for action. This is because the military knows very well that
it's just a matter of time before any communication is liable to be
intercepted by an unintended recipient. As Brand famously said, information
wants to be free, and in most cases it will be, whether you like it or not.
Especially if you don't.

Of course, certain basic countermeasures are never a bad idea. For example,
when I plan insurrection against the occupation, and in order to thwart
Evil Forces everywhere, I make sure that I plan all my activities off-line,
in a Faraday cage, in a handwritten code that only I understand, in
disappearing ink. I haven't been caught yet, so it must be working.

ed


On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 10:50 AM, Richard Bronosky <richard at bronosky.com>wrote:

> So, we have been talking about cable modems in another thread. I have
> replied to the thread, but I never searched for a product to reference or
> anything like that. Now, when I go to amazon.com to order some more "I'm
> too busy coding to get up and eat right now" bars. I see an ad for the
> Motorola 6141 SurfBoard Modem. I can only assume that Google scanned my
> Gmail and caused this to happen. I've seen my searches in Google Shopping
> and on Amazon affect Google adsense ads and Amazon ads respectively. But,
> I've never seen such a crossover. Maybe it is a coincidence. I don't think
> it is.
>
> I think this is awesome. I know I am going to see ads when surfing the
> net. I expect it. When the ads are well targeted, I like it. That's right.
> I like ads! I go to my job and earn money so that I can buy geeky stuff
> like Android tablets, RaspberryPi accessories, and flash drives so small
> you can lose them inside a USB port. I like that I see ads for these things
> instead of for Lexus and Tampax. I only wish my TV ads were so relevant.
>
> Okay, queue the "corporapist" rant.
>
> --
> .!# RichardBronosky #!.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo
>
>


-- 
Edward Holcroft
Madsen Kneppers & Associates Inc.
3020 Holcomb Bridge Rd. NW
Norcross, GA 30071
O (770) 446-9606
M (678) 587-8649

-- 
MADSEN, KNEPPERS & ASSOCIATES USA, MKA Canada Inc. WARNING/CONFIDENTIALITY 
NOTICE: This message may be confidential and/or privileged. If you are not 
the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately then delete it 
- you should not copy or use it for any purpose or disclose its content to 
any other person. Internet communications are not secure. You should scan 
this message and any attachments for viruses. Any unauthorized use or 
interception of this e-mail is illegal.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20130212/fa7e3584/attachment-0001.html>