Superhighway To Hell

Sounds like the AlterNet but I think this may be a scarily prescient article.  Just one more shitty thing we leave to the next generation?:

Companies like Google and Facebook are pioneers in the areas of profiling and search inversion, but the Internet’s nature (distributed, standards-based, open to all) makes it easy for others to follow their lead. Any Web company that owns servers storing user information can participate in profiling, as can any network service provider providing the pipes.

Profiling will take off fast for another reason: It’s legal. It doesn’t have to be an invasive activity. It’s not necessary, for example, to read e-mails or listen in on Skype calls in order to create prescient profiles. “Patterning”–or knowing which sites users visit, with whom they communicate, and how often–provides companies with more than enough data to create a valuable user profile.

via Superhighway To Hell — InformationWeek.