Why do you say that companies have a right to know the personally identifiable information about the people that buy their software. Just because they offer a service that somebody desires does not give them a right to demand their personal information. What good use are they going to put that to? I'm not saying they should not be allowed to do it, if they want to then that is their choice. But it is not an inherent right of software companies to gather personal information about their consumers.
Who the hell actually needs this kind of power in the residential market. I have a 1.2 Ghz T-Bird and I think that's plenty of power for the time being and it's already insanely hot. Aside from the high-end supercomputer market, where is this going to affect any of us, the normal PC buying/building public?
This is just the latest example in the growing list of the ways corporations and big businesses are getting more and more involved in the internet. To them, everything is about money and they see the internet as just another way to make money, whether they're invading privacy or not. The only way they'll stop is if they get a serious backlash from their users and a lot of people on the internet today are too blind to even notice what's going on, much less do anything about it. So as long as the internet remains in wide usage and blind idiots use e-mail, corporations will be more than happy to litter their services with ads because the fact is, not enough people click on banner ads so they have to find alternate ways of generating cash, otherwise what are they in it for?
Slashdot Mirror
Why do you say that companies have a right to know the personally identifiable information about the people that buy their software. Just because they offer a service that somebody desires does not give them a right to demand their personal information. What good use are they going to put that to? I'm not saying they should not be allowed to do it, if they want to then that is their choice. But it is not an inherent right of software companies to gather personal information about their consumers.
Who the hell actually needs this kind of power in the residential market. I have a 1.2 Ghz T-Bird and I think that's plenty of power for the time being and it's already insanely hot. Aside from the high-end supercomputer market, where is this going to affect any of us, the normal PC buying/building public?
This is just the latest example in the growing list of the ways corporations and big businesses are getting more and more involved in the internet. To them, everything is about money and they see the internet as just another way to make money, whether they're invading privacy or not. The only way they'll stop is if they get a serious backlash from their users and a lot of people on the internet today are too blind to even notice what's going on, much less do anything about it. So as long as the internet remains in wide usage and blind idiots use e-mail, corporations will be more than happy to litter their services with ads because the fact is, not enough people click on banner ads so they have to find alternate ways of generating cash, otherwise what are they in it for?