Zadie Smith:

We know what we are doing "in" the software. But do we know, are we alert to, what the software is doing to us? Is it possible that what is communicated between people online "eventually becomes their truth"? Is it really fulfilling our needs? Or are we reducing the needs we feel in order to convince ourselves that the software isn't limited?

Dean R. Snow:

It's really easy to kid yourself.

Edward Wyatt and Tanzina Vega:

Privacy advocates are pushing for a "do not track" feature that would let Internet users tell Web sites to stop surreptitiously tracking their online habits and collecting clues about age, salary, health, location and leisure activities.

Marketers hate the idea.

In a conversation last week at The New York Times, Eric Schmidt said that the explosion in online consumer monitoring was increasing friction about how strict the privacy limits should be. And, he added, "it's going to get a lot worse."

Ian Malcolm:

You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you want to sell it!

Om Malik:

Rapleaf sells pretty elaborate data that includes household income, age, political leaning, and even more granular details such as your interest in get-rich-quick schemes.

Andy Greenberg:

American Science & Engineering, a company based in Billerica, Massachusetts, has sold U.S. and foreign government agencies more than 500 backscatter x-ray scanners mounted in vans that can be driven past neighboring vehicles to see their contents.

A warning:

If you are ever approached by a bunch of over-eager white guys in a white van who try to sell you ("cheap!!!") a set of surround-sound speakers straight out of the van, ... mock them laughingly and offer to sell them some dot-com stock.