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On Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 1:36 PM, Neil Winchurst wrote: > I have relations in the US. They tell me that everyone there is under > surveillance all the time (via the internet and CCTV) and that a lot of what > they think is their private business is anything but. It is not just the > government, many companies are watching too, mainly to be able to offer the > sort of items that are aimed directly at what someone likes. And how do they > know that? By storing information about one's buying habits. I don't have a problem with targeted ads. In fact, I'd rather see ads that are somewhat relevant to me. The fact that to do so, companies have to build a profile based on your browsing/shopping habits, is more of a concern, especially given the fact that some governments (in particular the US) can easily access that data if they need to. > It makes me wonder how bad things are over here in the UK. It is not just > Facebook and Twitter, although they seem to be among the worst offenders. I don't know if that's true. The worst "offenders" tend to be smaller companies (small-ish ISPs, web shops) who, when the government demands data, don't have the resources to find out if the government has followed the correct procedures to obtain that data, and just hand it over. Not sure about Facebook, but Twitter has a pretty good reputation when it comes to not just handing over anything the US government asks for. They are, of course, obliged to adhere to US laws, which don't make it too hard for the government to obtain the data. And they do have a lot of data on you, if you have an account. Martijn. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq