[markman]

It has to do with collusion between driver and passenger. It protects everyone involved. It prevents a passenger from getting in the vehicle and saying, "I told the app I was going to the bijou duplex but I really need a driver 3 hours to run a bunch of errands. I think we can work out a deal thats beneficial to us both..." that's just one of millions of possible scenarios. Uber can now tell if driver and passenger just drove by the bijou duplex never ending the fare. All of this other squabbling about privacy blah blah blah is senseless. Just ask yourself one question, whom is it that is actually tracking me? For what reason? OK that's two questions. I think once you answer those questions you'll come to the same conclusion time after time, "I'm just not important." On that note one can also conclude, "There's nothing about me, nothing I do, say nor anyplace I go is needed by Zuckerberg. He's doing just fine without my info. The worst thing that's gonna happen is I'll mysteriously get toothpaste coupons or rental car discounts."

[simondw]

I take it you stand behind the "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" argument?

[markman]

Yes and no. A few years ago I realised my digital bathroom scale's calibration was out of whack so like anyone whom might have lost the instructions I google the make and model of my scale to download them.

Later that evening while on a different computer I noticed in the right-hand margin of facebook an ad for bathroom scales. I was horrified. I felt violated, tracked and spied on. This wasn't spill over from localised cookies. There was a database somewhere keeping track of my online activities and passing that info along to whomever asked for it I guess.

On the one hand nobody cares or is watching what I'm doing. But what if I'm a high school teacher and a female student infatuated with me males advances which after being rebuffed goes public with false accusations of how I tried to rape her, will I be sitting in court watching a prosecutor show a jury the gay monkey porn sites I visit because he or she was able to subpoena this "database" of all my online activity and now because of it I may lose my job or career? I don't know. Maybe that's the whole reason privacy rights are such an issue.

If it means catching bad guys I'm for it but if it means scrutinizing the innocent then yeah of course I don't want my privacy violated.