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HOW TO EXERCISE THE POWER YOU DIDN’T ASK FOR
by Jonathan Zittrain
I used to be largely indifferent to claims about the use of private data for targeted advertising, even as I worried about privacy more generally. How much of an intrusion was it, really, for a merchant to hit me with a banner ad for dog food instead of cat food, since it had reason to believe I owned a dog? And any users who were sensitive about their personal information could just click on a menu and simply opt out of that kind of tracking.
But times have changed.
The digital surveillance economy has ballooned in size and sophistication while keeping most of its day-to-day tracking apparatus out of view. Public reaction has ranged from muted to deeply concerned, with ...
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