Jonathan Rosenberg from Google said in the quote I mentioned the other day, “the new form of commerce is the exchange of personal information for something of value”.
I guess my only question coming out of reading that quote is, “where’s my receipt”. Jonathan says we all engage in this transaction every day, and I can’t seem to find anywhere that documents what I’ve agreed to give up out of my personal information, and what I’ve received for it.
Simplistically, I’ve given up the catalog of everything I’ve ever searched for on Google or Google Maps, my email addresses for Gmail and Google Voice, everything I’ve ever posted on the Internet, and everything I’ve ever written that has been syndicated back out to the Internet.
And in exchange, I got better search, better directions, an inbox I never use and a voicemail box I never use, and other people got to find the things I wrote or posted.
I also got a bit less personal privacy. And that’s the part I wish I had a receipt for.
