I am definitely not one to live my life in fear.
However, I think ignoring the info tracked by companies and/or accepting it as OK is a disaster waiting to happen. As such, I will speak out about it rather than ignore it. But I was raised to believe that a right to privacy is tantamount to living in a "great country".
I absolutely agree with your last statement! I am always amazed at the lack of concern about a person's own information. For example, I have seen:
1. The wife of a man accused of molesting a student posting details of the situation on a forum (similar but not this one) - when suggested that she cease because what she posts can be used against him, she got extremely mad at us for "not caring".
2. An employee having confidential medical records emailed to her work email address (which was read by her employers and was instrumental in getting her fired and arrested for fraud).
And so many more. Just identifying your family with ages in your signature here can provide enough information for someone to identify you. And having had a crazy family (they believed the husband's body had been taken over by an alien and were trying to start a new religion) stalk several people on a forum and threaten to do bodily harm to them. That they lived within 90 miles of me made me very glad none of my personal information was out there for them to find me.
To put a slightly different spin on things, if Sara Conner had posted on FB, the Terminator would have won.
