In principle, I have no problem with web companies tracking my movements and habits online. The problem with the current system is that they are doing it withou

In principle, I have no problem with web companies tracking my movements and habits online. The problem with the current system is that they are doing it without my consent. I have no problem disclosing my Amazon shopping history (or current shopping cart) to Overstock - maybe Overstock will offer me a better deal. You know what would be awesome? A global, secure, private and auditable web session and personal information management system. I want to be the arbiter of who has access to my metadata. (Given the huge amounts of metadata I product in a given year we might as well just call it "data"). If the contents of my hard drive are sacrosanct why should the data I provide to Comcast, Verizon, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. (which dwarfs the capacity of my hard drive) be any different?