Mandatory registration for free information
A number of news sites, such as The Age, have started requiring registration to read.
On this point consider the registration agreement for the wonderful bugmenot.com [from boingboing]:
What percentage of sites do you visit that require registration?
What percentage would you be comfortable with?
Annual Income (in US dollars)
Explain how a search engine like Google would function if no content was publicly accessible:
How many sexual partners have you had in your life?
To some extent it's a technical problem: I don't mind disclosing that I'm a 46yo Anguilan herpetologist, but I do mind filling out a clumsy and longwinded form &mdash just to read a story that they very likely lifted from AP or Reuters anyhow. So I pretty much just close the window on these things.
I can sympathize with publishers wanting more tightly targetted ads (or, as they call them these days, "articles".) So I'd like to propose a less awful way to find this out: put a little survey next to the articles, asking people for random information. Explain that it helps make the site sustainable. Ask one question at a time, and make it voluntary: "what state do you live in?", "how old is your car?", etc.
posted Mon 11 Oct 2004 in /issues/privacy | link
Will people ever pay for privacy?
Adam Shostack has an interesting slideset on whether people will ever pay for privacy.
posted Thu 5 Feb 2004 in /issues/privacy | link
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