[colechristensen]

Most people, if it explained to them, would be generally uncomfortable with the idea of their movements in a public place being so specifically logged.

How would you feel if every time you were in a store, an employee followed you around and took notes on your actions?

[shurcooL]

Thanks for a constructive response to my question. I'm simply trying to gain a better understanding of the situation.

> How would you feel if every time you were in a store, an employee followed you around and took notes on your actions?

Most people would feel uneasy/bothered by that. But are those emotions warranted? If we did not get such emotions, would the same scenario be okay? Or are the emotions a consequence of the true reason why we're against such behavior.

It's also worth noting that the employee following you around is a visible behavior, while being tracked via Wi-Fi mac addresses is much less intrusive.

[nitrogen]

It's also worth noting that the employee following you around is a visible behavior, while being tracked via Wi-Fi mac addresses is much less intrusive.

It's less visibly intrusive, but the effect is the same. Our instincts aren't very good at reacting to effects we can't see, having evolved in a world where there were no undetectable ways for someone to follow us. Thus, we should consider what our natural reactions would be to a person doing the thing we want to use technology to do, before we create the technology to do it.

[shurcooL]

> It's less visibly intrusive, but the effect is the same. Our instincts aren't very good at reacting to effects we can't see

Absolutely true.

We should also consider the underlying causes of certain emotions, and whether or not they should be warranted.

Many phobias are unwarranted fears, so the goal is to eliminate the emotion rather than the underlying source. But the decision to _try_ to eliminate the fear can only be done after identifying and confirming that the fear is indeed unwarranted and unhealthy.

On the other hand, if the emotion is warranted, then it's completely valid.

What I'm suggesting is that human emotion serve as a really good indicator, but they cannot be taken as the absolute truth. It's best to investigate the actual facts and come up with logical conclusions. So neither trusting emotions blindly, nor ignoring them completely is the best course of action, but something in between.