Often I have an idea for a blog that I reject because I fear someone I describe would be identifiable, and I am opposed to putting people on the Internet unasked. You may have noticed that I never use names, even my husband’s , but I also don’t want to describe someone, especially not someone who is a member of a small group. It may seem like paranoia; it’s not as if my blog is any sort of a platform for exposure. I don’t think one can overstate the reach of our corporate overlords in mining our data, though.

Some of the more surprising data mining exploits are well known: naming a celebrity undergoing a secret hospital procedure, locating and confronting anonymous posters, and my favorite, the teen whose father found out she was pregnant because Target started sending her maternity product incentives.

Recently I heard a radio interview updating us on Facebook’s new tracking abilities. Since FB requires everyone to sign up with their real names–and most comply–it can gather data on people anywhere on the Internet, even if they aren’t logged on to FB. FB isn’t hiding this ability; in fact, it was disclosed in one of those privacy policy updates no one reads. (And how could we? You may remember the Carnegie Mellon study a few years ago estimating the average person would need 76 8-hour days each year to read them all.) The purpose of the data collection is for targeted ads, and FB offers advertisers amazing granularity. Want to reach people who keep chickens, have exactly 7 credit cards, and traveled to Africa during the past 12 months? No problem!

Of course, those archives know all of the revealing things the collective-we have been doing: viewing extreme porn, inquiring about odd disease symptoms, reading bomb-making instructions, googling friends, family, and strangers, subscribing to racist or sexist joke sites, researching tax avoidance, and posting nude photos of ourselves. We are our own worst enemies when it comes to Internet privacy, and we not only seem unable to resist airing all our dirty laundry, but also don’t use very secure password practices.

The EU restricts the use, storage, sharing, and collecting of personal data, including address and image, and enforces those laws, but in the US there is no demand for this. If I were on FB, I would be much more worried about what it had stored about me than I am about the NSA tracking my phone calls. Government here has been shrinking for decades while corporations have dramatically broadened their reach, but many Americans still disdain public policy solutions. Nothing much smaller than a government will ever be able to rein this in. FB could send us a new privacy policy tomorrow announcing it would make all our data available to foreign governments, and that wouldn’t be illegal.

I’d like to end by recommending two books: Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil and Dragnet Nation by Julia Angwin. The latter even has some hints on how to avoid surveillance, though I doubt many of you will be wrapping your cell phones in foil.

Postscript: I am really enjoying watching the World Series, mostly because of The Cubbies! (sorry, Indians fans), but also because so many people in the stands are wearing heavy coats, and knit hats, and gloves. I have not seen those items here.