“Gmail reads all my email. Why should I care?”
“Facebook tracks what I do online. So what?”
“My iPhone tracks my location – big deal. I don’t have anything to hide.”

These are typical responses that people give when they are told that their privacy is at risk when they are online. This might indeed be the attitude of many reading this post. People have a hard time seeing what the big deal is when it comes to sharing (what seems like) insignificant details of their lives with corporations. These corporations are providing them a valuable service for free, so its seems like a fair trade, right?

Worst case – I’m forced to sit through advertisements that are selected “just for me”. 

This new article on Scientific American’s site “The Rich See a Different Internet Than the Poor” gives the most clear, succinct explanation I’ve ever seen of what is at stake when it comes to internet privacy. In layman’s terms, they explain how the massive amounts of data that’s being collected by these services is being used to shape everything we (and don’t see) in both the virtual world and real world. I can go on about it, but I doubt if I could explain it as clearly.

Regardless of where you sit on the issue of internet privacy, we all need a clear understanding of what’s at stake. This article is a must-read.

Want to talk more about it? Sound off in the comments!