Snippet: Unified ID 2.0 Is the Hot New Privacy Violation on the Web ☇

Nick Heer:

Second, I am not sure many people think their email address is an inconsequential piece of information. Not to undermine Chen’s reporting on the gross new standard known as Unified ID 2.0 and the myriad ways your email address is tied to your identity, but I think many people are wary of spam at the very least.

You must consider any of your contact information a personal identifier if you do not already do so. After all, how often do you change your email address or your phone number? But you should not need to — worthwhile privacy legislation would restrict their use and prevent the kinds of data enrichment companies that require us to treat simple contact details with the sensitivity of our Social Insurance Numbers.

I’m so sick of the creepy, privacy whack-a-mole game that we have to play because no one is legislating on our behalf on these matters. Conversely, the marketing/advertising machine is so preoccupied with whether or not they can, they didn’t stop to think if they should.