I am back again, wow, two posts in a day.  Kind of nice to feel like I am following up a bit on what is becomming somethings I really enjoy and hope to make better.  Better in a way so that I can bring you content that you are interested in and, hopefully, that we can even discuss.  The post below this one has the subject material which is always a good thing to talk about with each other here, I hope, and, our families, espcecially our children.

To start, the post below is about searching and surfing in an annonymous mode.  As I mentioned earlier, that was the rage for many of us in the later part of the century.  And the products I used, from Zero Knowledge, gave me a very good understanding of what I really need to be aware of and what are the harmless things we may run accross, which will provide a better browsing experience (man, I sound like I work for some major, super big, not-to-be-named social media/contact get your information site.  I don't. 

I do realize that if I want much of what I have found on the Web, if I want to be able to keep reading about my favorite subjects, or seeing some great videos, or joining a soical group based on geo-location, then, I have to compensate the owners of these "companies," so that they can make a living and continue to improve and deliver the products I like so much.

Some sites are very direct, they want a subscription fee.  I have heard friends say, "man, no way, I will just go somewhere else."  Great, but, at some point there has to be a model which will allow "companies" to make a living.  We don't like to work for free, and my employees, as good as our product (non-Web) is, want to get paid.

What do we have to offer?  Money, sure, and in some instances I find it well worth the fee.  Being honest, I can't afford a financial fee for every site and Web service I like to visit and/or use.  That leave me with not much to offer, for as you can see, my blogging abilities are very rough on a good day, so, no barter there.

We all know what it comes down to, information about each of us.  For me, I am fine with that, given a truth that I can decide what I will trade in the way of information.  I am not going to give out my social security number, though, I am sure there are a number of very good Internet jockeys who could find it and hand it back to me within minutes. (An aside: I was at one of my cancer pain clinics today. I had to fill out some form for a referral to get me even more images of some sort.  There was a place for my Social Security Number.  I declined to fill it out.  They could have my health insurance number, heck, they could have my car insurance number, even my driver's license number, but not my Social Security Number.  They seemed fine that I would not give the number out.  My assumption is that it is strictly for record keeping, but, they can find another method, I am sure.)

There, I have a set at least on limit on what I will trade.  I will let the Web site owner know the type of browser I use - if he can tell that it is usuallly the latest version of Opera, but in the masked mode of identifying itself as either Firefox or Internet Explorer.  That is because so many Web sites are not written to work well with each type of browser.  I have no real knowledge of why this is, and I am sure some of it is how Opera makes their browswer run. The negative is that the Web site owner does not see that it is an Opera browser, so doesn't think to check that the site works well with that browser.  I do not meant to lie, but I do want to use the site, that aspect of Opera helps me out.

On the social sites, I had to really look at what I would be willing to give.  And, heck, I was already a member of Linked-In.  Plus, for $10.00 to $15.00, I can get, assuming I have a key piece of information, such as your phone number or address, a full listing of what you paid for your home, what your neighbors paid, what their names and phone numbers are, how many cars the own versus lease, where you lived before your current address, the same information about your neighbors, you current employer, your legal history and so on and on.  Now, that fee is a one-time only fee, for that site needs to make money and when someone pays for the one-time use of the site for a low amount, as above, or even for free, they put down a credit card and are entered into a monthly payment agreement, which they must stop by a certain time after the first use.

The really talented gurus of the Internet and the Web, (I am assuming that to get some of this or most of this information for free, they may use another part of the Internet versus just the Web, just my thoughts) could probably get most of that information and more in a short time.  Much of it is public record information, but, how many of us really understand how to get at that information, thus, the information broker business is dong just fine.

The title of this post, Privacy Enhanced Mode, refers to how the video in the last post is told to handle certain information about your visit.  If you come by and do NOT click on the video, no cookie, which helps the owners with how many unique views, the browser used, etc, will not be placed on your computer.  But, hit play and the cookie goes on to the browser and the owner of the site can get the fairly benign, at this point, information they need.  Please click this to read about the Privacy Enhanced Mode.

Let's wrap this up, though, I do want to come back to priviacy on the Internet and the Web at another date.  For me, I am willing to trade the information so I can watch http://www.fearnet.com without a subscription fee - yet.  And the same with so much else that is out there and it comes to us in all forms, music, discussion, live debates, great and interesting articles on everything, I believe, that man has thought of in the past few centuries or more.  However, that is just me.  We each have to decide what we will give up seeing or using if the price isn't right for us.  There is no wrong answer, but, as in the rest of our lives, if we can't pay, in some form, we don't get to play.  But, also, the things we keep discovering on this Web, may just go away, to me, that would be sad.