[Travis]

Honest question -- why do we assume our actions deserve privacy on the internet, when we access someone else's site? We don't have the same expectation for e.g., when I walk into a shop (eg I may desire, but do not receive, privacy from being tracked if I were to walk into a sex toy shop).

Is it because of the third-party component?

[mike-cardwell]

When you visit a website, that website gets a lot more information about you than when you walk into a shop. All I want is that websites are limited to the same information as a simple shop. I published the following blog post last year which covers my thoughts on it: https://grepular.com/2011_EU_Cookie_Legislation_Opinion_of_a...

Shops don't know the last shop you visited, but websites do know the last website you visited (referrers). Shops don't assign you a unique ID the moment you walk through the door which they use to identify you on subsequent visits, websites do (cookies).

[Travis]

I see what you're saying. But excepting the cross-site tracking, aren't all of those privacy leaks just data that my browser is sending? Seems to me that's more my responsibility than the site owners. (FTR, I do use a bunch of the privacy controls and find trackers like the FB bug a bit creepy.)