First of all, my point wasn't about what I feel. It was about the intent of the article (or, if you prefer, my reading of the article's intent). That said, in

First of all, my point wasn't about what I feel. It was about the intent of the article (or, if you prefer, my reading of the article's intent). That said, in my reading of the article, the point isn't that targeted ads invade privacy more than untargeted ones. Rather, it's the act of mining your personal information that is the invasion of privacy. The fact that your information is read in order to target ads is almost beside the point. Here's a concrete example from my own life (and now I do bring in my own feelings). Shortly after my wife found out she was pregnant, we started getting flyers in the mail for baby-related products. As nearly as I could figure at the time, the information could only have come from two sources: (1) my credit card (invading my privacy by telling companies I was starting to buy baby-related products); or (2) Facebook (invading my wife's privacy by selling information she posted for her family and friends to read). After reading this article, I see that a possible third source was Gmail (invading my privacy by scraping the content of messages I wrote to my friends and family). Now I understand people who say "That's OK, you got a free credit card in exchange for them selling your buying habits to companies." And I understand people who say "That's OK, your wife got a free Facebook account in exchange for them selling her posts to companies." And I understand people who say "That's OK, you get a free e-mail product in exchange for them reading the content of your private messages." What I don't understand is any notion that it's not an invasion of privacy, because I might want to learn about baby-related products. To put it in even more concrete terms, here are three forms of advertising for baby-related products: (1) I see a billboard advertising infant formula. (2) I buy an issue of "New Parent" magazine and see an ad for infant formula inside. (3) I write an e-mail to my brother saying "Guess what, we're having a baby!" and five days later a sample pack of infant formula shows up on my doorstep. Each of these advertisements is progressively more targeted. The first and second do not invade my privacy, while the third does. And the thing that bothers me is not that the advertising is targeted. It's that the advertiser is even aware that I'm a potential target.