Privacy?

The Journal has published an interesting privacy article today by Gordon Crovitz http://preview.tinyurl.com/68eyf2.  While it seems to focus on how little privacy we may have these days because Amazon tracks books we like and Gmail includes small ads that may relate to words we use in our e-mails, the article does not give as much credit as perhaps it should to the steps that these and other companies are taking to keep user information private.  There is quite a bit of difference in disclosing gross statistics about YouTube videos compared to disclosing whether you or I actually watched a particular video.  Maybe Mr. Crovitz would slant things differently if he had sat through many long meetings with business, technical and legal folks focusing on ways to protect sensitive client information from hackers and the like.  Certainly no one can expect perfect protection of their privacy, but Scott McNealy (get over it) or Larry Ellison (privacy is an illusion) both seem a bit too jaded.  One of Mr. Crovitz’s last observations is perhaps the most interesting to think about; privacy may be most important to terrorists.