I've been dining out on this story for years: When I was in b-school, our marketing class had a guest lecturer who walked into the room holding a big bag of candy. First thing he does is ask, "Who has a birthday today?"
No one raises their hand.
"OK, who had a birthday in the past week?" One hand.
"Which day was it?"
"The 14th."
Gives the person a piece of candy. Now he's got all our attention.
"Who had a birthday this past month?"
Four or five hands go up. He asks each person to tell him which day, and gives them a piece of candy when they do.
"OK, who had a birthday last month." And so on.
Finally he turns to the class and says, "What did I just do? I got you all to divulge personal information for a small reward."
And ultimately, that's why I believe the battle for privacy is doomed. We are all (and I definitely include myself in this group) too willing to trade our info for "candy". If I'm driving to my home or office, I could enter the address each time. Or I could tell Google what those addresses are and then get directions with one tap. I could pay highway tolls on an a la carte basis or I can get an EZ-Pass and zoom through at the expense of divulging my car's location. In each individual case, we calculate that it's worth the tradeoff. But the collective impact of all these decisions is that you pretty much can't function in our society unless you are willing to exchange your privacy.