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I could be in online trouble

If giving a fake name and date of birth to MySpace is a criminal act...

Admittedly, I've not actually done anything criminal online, but I regularly make up a false date of birth / location / name when signing up to various websites.
I refuse to give the real information when I beleive that all it'll be used for is to track what I'm doing on the site, and target marketing at me based on that information. Same reason that I don't have loyalty cards - if they want market research, they can put some work into it, rather than stalking my shopping habits!

We're constantly being told to be more aware of how important and sensitive our personal information is, and not give it away without careful thought and consideration of the basis for the request for it.
But by giving false information when we don't believe the request for out personal details are justified, we're breaching the terms and conditions of various sites.
How can you win?

Comments

Scott said…
Glad to see it is not just me who shuns loyalty cards. Did you know that you can not get groceries delivered from tesco now without signing up for a card. They have a box saying: Don't have a Clubcard? Click this box(which by clicking means you are agreeing to have one!)Every Little Helps inded.

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