This is why I hate sites like Facebook exposing a thousand "settings" to "control" my privacy; any one of them is just a small bug away from not doing what it c

This is why I hate sites like Facebook exposing a thousand "settings" to "control" my privacy; any one of them is just a small bug away from not doing what it claims to do. And the more stuff that's going on, the less likely it is that I may notice when something has slipped through that shouldn't have. These privacy mechanisms should be far simpler, vetted for security, and ubiquitous. Consider the physically separate "secure element" chip on your phone that stores data in a way that nothing else can possibly reach, for example. It should be accepted practice in the software industry that your new app doesn't just get to invent some way of storing potentially-sensitive information; there should be a clear place to toss it in a vault under user control, where the user can see everything you have stored even if your application isn't open (e.g. OS X Keychain). And yes, this is an argument again for open-source software. Proprietary secrets be damned, there's nothing special about a web browser anymore. The code should be visible so as many people as possible can ensure it is correct.