Go Ahead, Cripple My Being

A response to Go Ahead, Sell My Data

Have you ever been ashamed of yourself? Of course, you have.

Want to talk about it? Of course, you don't — that's why they call it being ashamed.

But what if you didn't have to tell me about it. What if a friend of mine could just open up some indelible click-stream of yours and tell me the errors of your way?

Before being housed in redundant data centers, shameful deeds, such as yours, stung just the same. The difference then was that a day would come where you could wake up, see the dawn, and know you could start again.

Preserving privacy is not about selling or not selling data to advertisers. Nor is it about preventing the violation of some curious or inalienable right.

Preserving privacy is about keeping what the natural world always granted us: the chance for reinvention.