Isn't that kinda how these big businesses work in general these days? Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Samsung, Motorola, Oracle, Intel, Dell, etc? I guess I'm just saying if someone has an issue with Sony they probably have an issue with the whole industry & it's practices, not /just/ Sony...

ah i had forgotten but yes I do. I can completely understand if that is your reasoning

Just because of how Sony handled this? Please, after this fiasco they'll be the safest company to trust your info to. Sony didn't handle the breach well, nor did it inform customers as it should have, but guess what? NO OTHER COMPANY would have done ANYTHING different. I'll bet there are many that would've tried to deny the whole thing.

I always liked to fantasize it was a wooden one...

Up to a point, then they become moral again because it no longer means as much. I think it occurs once you get past the billionaire mark: Examples: Warren Buffet, Bill Gates...

uh...keylogger software? You have to decrypt your documents to use them after all...

You mean the Do Not Track list which is practically unenforceable? The one where the advertisers "do the right thing" and honor the users' request not to track them? Such an IRONCLAD defense against predatory advertisers should be the gold standard, shouldn't it?

Would having wireless carriers be dumb pipes really be so bad? Regardless of who's "goodness permeates"?

uh yes the app was called siri back then, I used it myself for over a year. I still have the .ipa file.

The problem is that, though I agree whole-heartedly with the results of the study, it was funded by Google. Even if it wasn't we'd have controversy, but since it does, it's gunna be more than a flamewar!

this may be a sign of my generation/youngness speaking...but....whut?

thank god I'm not the only one who thought that!

(the number of federal agencies)-odd number of completely incompatible digital records systems proposals.

Agreed. This merely shows the rest of us that not only CAN it be done, but that it HAS been done and certainly CAN be done in the future!

Hiding the information just gives those who want to keep it all for themselves more time to do awful things.

I didn't realize that our identities were so worthless. Whether it is attributed to evil, or a lack of humanity on the part of the two employees, this represents a fundamental problem among people today: "Doesn't affect me, so I don't care."
I believe that will destroy us even faster than bank collapses or political corruption, in a sense because those maladies are results of the "I don't care" problem. "I can buy these horrible securities, if it goes bad, it doesn't affect me, so I don't care", "My constituents want this, sure it'll put 100,000 people out of work, but it doesn't affect me, so I don't care", "Hell I'll sell peoples identities, sure they'll be plagued by this for a matter of decades to come, but it doesn't affect me, so I don't care."
People need to care about things that don't affect them or else this world is very very doomed.