I write way too much about privacy and advertising because I think it is critically important to the value proposition of the internet.  It is also critically important to certain fundamental social values that underline liberal democracy. 

Chris Dixon had a great post on this topic some time ago and I just caught up to it.  Here is the key passage:

It is widely believed that a flourishing democracy requires an independent, diverse, and financially solvent press.  With print newspapers set to disappear in the next few years, the future of quality journalism is highly uncertain. This year, the online version of the New York Times will generate about $200M in revenue, a number that will need to approximately triple to support the current Times newsroom.

Without sufficient advertising quality journalism will likely disappear.  It could be sacrificed on the alter of paranoia about protection of privacy to the detriment of all other values.  It could be sacrificed on the alter of permitting the “market” to regulate itself.  All the abuses including deceptive, misleading and hard to understand privacy policies hidden in a mountain of legal disclaimers, can seriously undermine confidence and therefore use leading to lower values for advertisers.

This is an area that cries out for a sensible debate and a sensible regulatory framework.