I'll probably lose 20 points of karma for daring to defy consensus, but: I really don't understand the terror around my mouse being tracked as I hover over a page, or around on an commerce site. Why is this supposed to bother me so much? And judging from the ads I'm served, they aren't figuring out very much about me at all. The most that happens is that if a female friend sends me a lingerie link, then I see lingerie ads everywhere for a week. Lately I've been served ads for Jewish religious garments. I'm not Jewish. They aren't collecting enough information on me, frankly.
It's about whose hands this information gets into. When all the data that is being collected on you is combined and cross-referenced with various data sources, you can end up finding all sorts of information about someone like their habits, their lifestyle, medical information, location history, among other things. All this data is sitting out there being sold and brokered to companies or governments who are definitely not using this data in a way that benefits you. Not to mention most of these datasets are not being protected and getting leaked all the time. You may not be a political target or religious dissident where this information can you killed but you are still not benefiting from these data insights being available on the open market. At the very least, you should be able to choose or get paid for this valuable information.
