Just to be clear, this has been happening since Google started when sites would just leave their incoming traffic logs available for indexing. Referrer spam ex

Just to be clear, this has been happening since Google started when sites would just leave their incoming traffic logs available for indexing. Referrer spam exists specifically to glean value from this. What is interesting is that the whole "big data" thing is really about connecting pre-existing dots like this into valuable information. The privacy reaction (like in this article) are to lock all the doors and bar the windows. But a lot of this data is already out there and it's only going to spread further. I just got an email from LinkedIn that someone I used to know looked at my profile. Does they mean this person wanted me to know that? Certainly not, but it's possible to track and beneficial for LinkedIn, so now I know. I worry for the openness of the web (via over-reaction) just as much as these emergent privacy issues. There are no easy answers here.