Not Taught About Much

The Wall Street Journal's intrusive, irritating pop-up afflicts subscribers daily.

When website memberships were new, I furnished the minimum information necessary to gain access; often it was just a name, which could be a pseudonym, and an email address.

I was more forthcoming with Amazon, Netflix, and iTunes, which required real credit cards, names, and addresses, but when the requests became more intrusive, say with a birth date, I left it blank if it would let me, or inserted a fake birthdate.

Lately I've been declining to join any website that wants more than basic contact information. That means no rewards clubs for restaurants, hotels, and other merchants, even those that are frequented often.

A number of websites are always displaying nagging pop-ups to "complete [my] profile". Now, given the revelations about how personal data has been used, I am glad not to have filled out the forms.

But there's no outrage. Facebook and other sites are not subject to strict privacy laws (in America, not Europe) like financial institutions, hospitals, or the IRS, which demand sensitive information while providing necessary services. Social media members voluntarily provided Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. with personal information and posted trip photos. Control was lost once the file was uploaded.

The source of much of this mess was boastfulness and pride, in other words users' look-at-me-ism. The ancients considered pride to be the deadliest of the sins, but they aren't taught about much any more.