"This reminds me of the regular conversations I have with check-out staffers who persistently encourage me to obtain one of their store discount membership cards. Because I am the person that I am, I will try to explain the principle of 'no free lunch' and that what they're doing is engaging me in a commercial transaction where I pay for that 'discount' with some unspecified and unknown piece of my identity. And I try to explain that I like my commercial transactions to be overt, explicit, and voluntary -- I want to buy something only when I choose to buy it and I want to know exactly what it is that I'm paying for it.
"And I am regularly met with complete incomprehension. These systems flourish not simply because many people accept the devil's bargain, but because they don't even recognize it as a bargain. The creepy stranger offers them candy and they respond, 'Ooooh! Candy!' and get in the car."
-- Heather Rose Jones, 2010-07-26