On a related note, it’s interesting – culturally, the web has taken on the role of “public spaces.” In other words, I can expect that my activities may get monitored when I’m walking around in a public space, like a store or a park. For most users, the web is a similar environment – we expect that as we “pass the gate” the web site will track us as a “unique hit”, and once we’re in it will track what “rooms” we visit, which products we buy, and where we linger. It might even record some identifying quality about us (IP).

What we do in our own homes however, or in this case on our computers outside the internet, us considered private. Having someone automatically track usage without asking, or worse pulling other data about us unrelated to the app itself, feels much like a manufacturer installing a chip in our refrigerator to track the food we eat, how often we open it, how often we fill it, and sending all of that information back to an “eye in the sky.”