NP A little Privacy Rant (long)

[JEANNIE BERNIER]

>From Blue Josh:
> 
> I think she meant, disappears as far as future activities are 
> concerned.

Thanks, Josh, that is what I meant.
> 
> And re ZIP codes: I mostly use a text-based web browser from a unix
> machine that I telnet into remotely. The machine may be in a building
> in Ames, IA, but who knows where I am? IP -> ZIP code is not at all
> reliable. Plus, blocks of IP addresses are reassigned at the drop of
> a hat, in sharp contrast to the ZIP codes for areas which AFAIK stay
> constant.
> 

Yes, an anecdotal story among marketers is that half the U.S. internet users
live in Vienna, VA.  

Which is where all the AOL servers are :-)

Also, to Doug's earlier message, the missing link here is that in order to
really exploit the information gathered about my internet habits, companies
would have to have access to what I am doing elsewhere - which would infer
some some sort of global centralized information repository.  I won't
pretend to be extremely knowledgeable about IP addresses and the more
nefarious uses of cookies, but it seems to me that unless corporations were
willing to share the information they've gathered about me with other corps
(which is not going to happen in the foreseeable, as most companies see this
information as their competitive advantage) then really the only thing I
have to worry about is my OWN company spying on me via software on our
network.