> Isn't it a shame in this jolly old world of
> ours that the same information is used for
> good and bad?

NO - it boils down to how you obtain the information....up front by asking the person, or covertly without them knowing.

Spying and secretly recording a persons moves and then saying it is in their best interest is akin to the Big Brother scenario of chipping everybody so the government knows your every move.

Hmmmm...let's take a similar scenario...away from computers, but that could happen from covert info gathering....

In your sexual activity you use a certain brand of prophylactics. One day you open your mail and see a fantastic special sale on just your brand. Great news....you're happy and order. But how did they know what you preferred...would you be happy to know that they had invaded your home, your privacy, with technology to explore and perhaps even watch your sexual habits to get the information?

I don't think you or any one else would be too pleased about it.

Nothing wrong with giving your customers what they want, but it is the principle of how you go about it.

Use the appropriate software to let your viewers personalize your site to their needs...let them tell you what they want and then provide it.

I would hazzard a guess that if I marketed a similar site to your user list and quoted to them the methods you use, by your own admission here, that your user list would shrink by at least 90%.

> Yes we check what sort of browser people are
> using, so that we can make sure our site is
> visible and valuable to the most people.

No justificsation for this...This isn't really necessary info....if your designer is doing his/her job properly he/she would check the pages in all the browsers, on all the platforms, to make sure it was displaying properly.

> Yes we like to know what they are looking
> for so that we can give them more of what
> they want.

Then do it properly...ask them...don't invade their privacy by spying on them.

> Yes we want to track the way they navigate
> through our site, so that we can make sure
> they aren't getting lost.

Nothing wrong with that...this is expected.

> As I said, it's a shame that we're fighting
> the do-badders in this whole thing,

Unless I am mistaken, you have just admitted that YOU are one of the do-badders that we have to protect ourselves from.

> Don't know the solution.

Sure you do...give your viewers what they want but go about it in the proper way - with ethics.

Cornell