When I call to order a pizza I am typically asked for my phone number. I could refuse to share that information if I feel that it is none of their business and I want to protect that personal information. But, by sharing my phone number with the pizza place, they are able to access my address in the blink of an eye so they know where to deliver the pizza without me having to tell them each time. Some pizza places are even sophisticated enough to keep track of what I have ordered so I can just order “the usual” without having to specify the details of the order every time I call.
When I go to the Amazon.com web site, I am greeted with a home page that says “Hello, Tony Bradley” with a tab at the top of the screen called “Tony’s Store” which displays items I have shown an interest in or related items that Amazon recommends I take a look at based on my past shopping habits and known preferences.
But, this convenience and technical efficiency means compromising my privacy at least a little. If I want to save the time and hassle ordering pizza, the pizza place has to store my name, phone number and home address, and possibly even my ordering history, in a database somewhere. To receive my personalized Amazon.com treatment and customized recommendations I have to allow Amazon.com to store some of my personal information including my shopping habits and items I have searched for in the past, as well as allowing them to place a cookie on my computer that identifies who I am to their servers.
In doing so, I trust that the companies I choose to do business with and share my personal information with will treat that information with the appropriate level of discretion and security. I trust that they won’t turn around and sell my personal data to a junk-mail marketing firm or store it in a text file on an insecure computer that anyone can access from the Internet. If you don’t have confidence in the intentions or abilities of the company you are working with, you should think twice about sharing your personal information.