An interesting conversation indeed which gets to the heart of conscious versus unconscious "utilities" around the Privacy versus benefit trade-off.

This is certainly a subject we should all try to better understand at a conscious level and I often find myself playing with.

There are some things that should trouble me but don't, others that trouble me, but I have to try and rationalise to myself why that would be, and still others that fly in the face of legislation, but still make sense. Often my categories capture different outcomes to those of friends, family, and colleagues. Here are some examples and perspectives:-

(1) Email filtering in Germany which thanks to their sensitivites on Privacy could have been interpreted as "illegal", but because everyone wanted it to make their lives better, is now an accepted way of life. My German friends shrug with acnowledgement that this should bother them, but hey, they get better environmental hygiene with it.

(2) CCTV cameras in London - every move you make in the centre of London is on Camera, it is impossible to drive into London without your car registration being recorded - Orwell or "oh-well"? Most people agree they like it, because it makes them safer. Although the somewhat abstract response may be that this is okay, try bringing it to life a little more - next time you're walking along a street in London think about it; I guarantee a little chill will invade your sunny disposition...

(3) On my way to the RSA conference I noticed there was a camera lense in the cab. To my left a big yellow sticker informing me that I was being recorded. That made me uncomfortable, and this despite the burly cab-driver taking me on a $350 cab ride to and fro along the freeway and back claiming he couldn't find San Jose (from San Francisco!) Still, I didn't want to be filmed.

(4) Vodafone can locate me if my phone is switched on to within a few metres. This particular capability was recently used to put the assailants right on the spot of the shooting of a young girl in the mean streets of London. I struggle to find anyone for whom this location capability is troubling, but I keep thinking to myself it should be.

(5) I registered for an event in London, submitted my card, and received a message saying "your card is already registered with PayPal, please use another card". Ugh - that one I didn't like (yet it is a scenario clearly stipulated in the PayPal privacy policy....so I guess I can't complain, can I?)

(6) I went to pick up a pizza at my local Dominos. walked through the door to see my name up on a screen above the cash desk with a little report showinf my name and the information that my own personal Hawaian was in the oven and I owed them 7.99. So I guess they recorded my phone number, linked to post code and/or prior order info and had me pinned. "cool" I thought, "my pizza's coming out hot and ready to eat in perfect time...". That falls squarely into the "should have bothered me but didn't" category.

Of all the themes that unravel from this fertile question the issue of "linkage" and "appropriate use" surface as "concern limiters" or conversely "aggravators". If it's there to make my life easier, and won't be extended in any other way, then it seems we feel okay.

But the one overriding thing that surfaces time after time is that in general people are much more cavalier in their on-line behaviours than we would like them to be; furthermore, in the UK and most of the rest of Europe people won't pay for their security, and want to be looked after "unobtrusively". An example - all UK banks acknowledge unanimously the first-mover disadvantage which would be terminal for any online offering of interupting a transaction with an extra security click (I once hosted a dinner for a large group of bankers on the subject - it was like a Tarantino movie, each one eagerly waiting and hoping the other would waver first, perspiration dripping into their soup as they peered from under their sombrero's...) To be clear, much as I value Privacy I empathise with having to make the "commercial suicide" choice.

So for now we all seem to be inching forward inclining ourselves towards the unfortunate "we know what's best for you" route, adjusting the dial as users become more aware, and more responsible, cautiously revealing the edges of our "comfort:discomfort" profile through real scenarios.

There is no way you can force people to do things the right way. But you can help them to do wrong things the right way.

This stuff better get working before the world switch to MS passport or whatever they have.