Furious Kevin Fox writes about The Good of Targeted Advertising today and makes a not unreasonable point about banner ads. More importantly, though, he coins the phrase “private as in…” similar to the open source “free as in…” which ought to be the next major web meme. This is crucial to ensuring the web remains a useful medium and does not degenerate into a complete pit of marketing crap. Here is his full explanation:
“The Open Source movement makes a distinction in the term ‘free’. They note the difference between “free as in beer” meaning not costing money, and “free as in speech” meaning unfettered communications. A similar terminology might befit the privacy world. “Private as in invisible” should relate to not allowing tracking or profiling of any kind, as in cookies, registrations, or server log tracking. “Private as in citizen” should mean the inability of marketers to contact you without your consent, or in a form other than paid advertising in content you specifically request. Somewhere in the middle is “Private as in anonymous” where you can be tracked, but not individually identified.”
BillSaysThis 