Re: Intended usage notification

On Mar 26, 2009, at 6:39 PM, Ian Hickson wrote:
>> - This site just asked me if I wanted to be advertised at based on my
>> location: reject.
>
> (Why would you reject it? Location-based ads are far more useful than
> generic ads.)

There is a trade-off here that some web users recognize. Receiving a  
location-based ad might be more valuable than a non-location-based ad,  
but some people balance that value against the risk that the site  
would, for example, determine whether the location is a doctor's  
office and sell that fact to health insurers or drug companies, reveal  
the location as part of civil litigation or in response to a  
government subpoena, or hand it off to a rogue employee who abuses it  
(e.g., for stalking). All of these things happen in reality, whether  
with location information or other data exchanged on the web.

This is not a comment on the value of Martin's proposal. I just wanted  
to point out that a value proposition exists here and some web users,  
given the chance, would choose not to share their information even  
when sharing might offer a benefit.