You missed my fundamental point. It's not the nature of the data, it's the value of the data. It's one thing to collect data without providing anything tangable in return, quite another in exchange for payment, products, or services.

As for your poor liberties I feel so sorry that you're being actively oppressed by your government.

Except you're not, and the only rebuttal you could come up with is name calling? Classic defence strategy, just not a very good debating strategy.

Anyway I assume I won't hear from you again because you're evil government will come and lock you up because they are collecting meta data on you and you're speaking out against your oppressive regime.

Was nice knowing you.

By the way you should actually experience oppression some day. It will instantly change your mine about your government.

Quite the opposite. Most "Geeks" I know bail out of their contract to get a new phone. The only person I know who doesn't have a phone on a plan is my mother. In every other case you get the latest phone for effectively free. That's how the brain works when you go from paying $40/month, contract expires, keep paying $40/month and a new phone arrives.

Maybe your non-geek friends are on different relationships with their telecom companies than my .... err whole country.

Are they? Some minor personal data such as web searches vs some real tangible improvement in my life? Comparing me to a drug addict makes me think that you're responding more out of emotion rather than giving your response rational thought, especially considering the level of "abuse" people put up with. Take my girlfriend for instance. She paid for Sims 4. She bought it, played it without issue, and enjoyed it despite "the world is ending" kind of comments about the game's DRM on slashdot. Something not fitting in with your philosophical point of view does not mean someone is being "abused".

Actually I'm beginning to think that you don't really understand the concept of trading something (money, personal data) for something else (services, products, enjoyment). The reality is the vast majority of the world is not at all affected by DRM, and that does not make them all addicts.

No I'm assuming that my information is not at all important. The government collects information you can not even fathom and the companies you list are actually some of the most up front about what is shared. But fortunately most of the western world is not actually afraid of their government. If I was living in the type of country where the government randomly makes citizens disappear or locks them up without due process then my opinion may be a bit different.

No they are not harming people by collecting data. They are only harming people by misusing data. Your argument sounds like those people who think cameras should be banned in public parks because someone may take a photo of a child and then go home and masturbate to it. The reality is if something does not have an effect on your life then you are not actually being wronged. Someone could be masturbating to a naked photo of me right now but I don't know about it so it isn't effecting me in any way. Your comparison to the NSA also fails to take into account my argument that you get something for something else. Google gives me something very useful for my data. The NSA only gives me "security" (man I can't keep a straight face saying that).

Did you read what I said there, because your reaction in this case is at odds with the rest of what you said, or did I just miss the sarcasm.

Irrelevant. The market place in general works on 2 year contracts. Just because you do something different doesn't magically mean a company should support you for it.

In my experience they acted perfectly fine. Compare say your Nexus which received 2 years worth of updates, to *any other Android phone* which never received any updates from the manufacturer.

As for the calibration, I wonder why you didn't return the phone under warranty? You had a problem? Well 200000 other people didn't. There was no major public outcry, and the phone was rated highly in its prime. So why did you sit there waiting for a software fix for a problem only a handful of people experienced?

I care. In fact I care a lot. The difference is that I weigh up the benefits and the costs to options. I don't just assume that default = bad.

Yes I read the warning when I first turned on my Android phone, the one about location sharing and opting in to Google location services and Google Play. I read them in detail and thought "fantastic!" I get services and benefits such as my phone automatically knowing where I intend to go based on a search I made on my PC right before I stepped in the car, and it helps me get there, without getting stuck in traffic. In return I don't need to pay someone to do this, just share some of my (slashdot would have you believe) highly sensitive personal information. An interesting side effect is that an advert that actually does slip through adblock is actually somewhat relevant to my interests.

Not everyone feels wronged when they are being tracked in exchange for goods or services.

Because the benefit and ease of use leaking my data brings far outweighs the consequences to me.

The consequence is some company knows some anonymised information about me. So far I have yet to be wronged by any of them.

The benefit on the other hand is that when I search for a company on google maps for instance and I head out to my car, my phone automatically brings up the time it will take to get there, the main route, and thanks to other people leaking their oh so sensitive data I also get a traffic congestion and time the trip will take me. Also in case GPS fails to connect for some reason which happened a lot on my previous phone, thanks to people leaking their oh so sensitive SSIDs and Google recording them I have a crude form of location services even when GPS isn't available such as when I'm indoors. That's just the indirect benefits I get and doesn't even begin to mention the primary benefit of having the option to trade my personal data in exchange for products and services which frees my money up for other endeavours.

I don't disable it for the same reason I didn't disable sharing tracking information on my phone despite it being an opt in option when I first turned it on.

That's all good and fine but just realise that you are in fact the minority. 2 years is not an accepted life span for many devices, but for many phones it most definitely is. You can thank contracts that last that long and come with a "free" phone.

I wonder how many of these are due to incorrect details. I've been living at my house for over 5 years now and I'm still getting letters from a debt collector for the previous tenant.
Apparently he owes $75. Apparently the debt collection has "confirmed the address as correct" and take immediate action if it's not paid.

I wonder with whom they confirmed the address. Certainly not with the people living there.

So are you 100% google free? No Android, no Google browser, no Gmail?

The reason I ask is because when I type something into the Firefox search bar in it's default configuration, shortly after it will appear as a suggested search in Chrome's universal address bar.

It's not Chrome leaking user data.

Are you trying to be clever or do you not understand how the legal system works at all?

I know who they are, but the brand has zero recognition where I live. That is despite a large portion of the population having their products. For the most part here they produce all the 3G / 4G dongles that every other person has but they are all re-branded.

Also the advert was for their smartphone which isn't sold here so I would say they aren't succeeding even in the slightest.

Does the windows licence agreement say that Balmer won't throw a chair at you? Does that give him the automatic right to do it?

Licence agreements are globally inclusive, not exclusive.

Oh? Please expand on that logic. What malware am I currently running?

I think the take home message here is that in London internet users somehow ended up receiving relevant ads from well known brands.

I seem to have nothing but crap. Right now I'm staring at an advert for a phone from a brand which is virtually unheard of (though quite prevailent, Huawei), and some company called Brocade who have something to do with bridges from what I can tell?

Where do I get these mythical well known brands?

They should have hired the DICE Beta department.