There are a number of articles around on this subject - One Man's Cool Is Another's Creepy is as good as any, and better than most.

My comment is not so much on the issue raised [privacy] more on the way marketers use it. If the technology can be used to deliver relevant, useful ads that can meet the needs of users, those users are unlikely to object. It is those lazy, generic ads that get me down.

For example ... I was looking at one of those 'geographic portal' type websites for the city where I live [Sunderland], and like all such sites it had Google-generated ads. Or should I say 'ad', singular. The one ad that was there was for an online dating agency on a page listing local tourist attractions!

The only reason it appeared anywhere on that site was that the keyword 'Sunderland' had been purchased by the dating agency. For heavens sake, if I wanted an online dating agency I would look for one. I was on a website purporting to inform me about Sunderland - serve me an ad for something relevant, or don't show anything at all.

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