find anything on anyone

Imagine sometime in the future, after the internet has been around for a long time, each and every person in the world has had some sort of experience on it and, in a nutshell, we are all perfectly "plugged in": We use the 'net for email, instant messaging, shopping, banking, planning vacations, handing in homework assignments, sending coworkers documents. In addition, a large proportion of us have personal websites, weblogs (like this one) and many use mobile devices to access and post information to the internet. Countless millions of pieces of personal information zoom around the globe day and night. To even a greater extent than today, the internet will be so entrenched in our daily lives that we will be unable to function without it.

Now imagine a company starts up, offering to share your personal information with anyone who wants it, for a small fee. By merging databases from various places-- government, commercial, banking, and perhaps more nefarious sources, like websites you've visited, libraries or video stores.

Imagine if every single piece of information the internet as a whole has collected on you, was visible to the public. If you visited a website, the date and time you did would be visible. If you purchased a golf club on eBay, that would be visible too. If you once volunteered for a political fundraiser, participated in a rally, argued with a troll on a message board-- what if it were all contained in a single text document, searchable under your name, at the click of a mouse?

Sound far-fetched? Perhaps. Maybe the laws in place will keep such information from becoming publicly accessible. But so much of our information is in private hands, can we trust that Microsoft, or Google, or Asianhotties.com will actually fulfill their privacy agreement? Did you even read what their privacy statement said? And even if Microsoft keeps its promise to not share your data, and Google keeps its promise not to be evil, who's to say that some shady organization won't intercept or steal those databanks at some point in time?

If you don't like the idea of your friends and neighbours knowing intimate details of your life, you should watch what you "outer" on the 'net. Because once it's out, it's out.

Imagine a world where you have your fetish tattooed on your forehead.

Blind dates will never be the same.

Google Search: find anything on anyone