Privacy and Enhanced Personalization

Alfred Kobsa's article "Privacy and Enhanced Personalization" brings up a very interesting and controversial topic. The main point of the article discusses how users love having the freedom to explore the internet and have that level of personalization that we all strive for. However, the problem users are facing is the amount of private/confidential information they are being asked to compromise in order to have the personal web experience that they want. Although this is a major concern for everyone who is in involved on the internet, the level of concern about privacy has been categorized into three different categories: Privacy Fundamentalists, Privacy Unconcerned, and Privacy Pragmatists. Privacy Fundamentalists generally express extreme concern about any use of their data and unwillingness to disclose information, even when privacy protection mechansims would be in place. The Privacy Unconcerned tend to express mild concern for privacy, and mild anxiety about how other people and organizations use information about them. And finally the Privacy Pragmatists are generally concerned about their privacy as well, but less than the fundamentalists. The article actually stated that the majority of people would actually fall under the category of Privacy Pragmatists. Considering how popular the web is and how many tasks such as shopping and paying bills are now done online I guess it shouldn't be surprising that the majority of people are not unbelievably concerned with the issue. I'm very hesitant when it come to giving out personal information, so I would definitely consider myself to be a Privacy Fundamentalists. Another key element that stuck out to me from the article was that people's trust in a Web site plays a crucial roll in the decision of disclosing their personal information. This is something that's so simple, yet so important. Just like anything else in this world, if you don't trust what you're doing then it's probably not a good decision. I consider myself to be very involved person online but yet I'm very disturbed by the information Web companies seem to consistently be asking me to provide. So I guess the question that I would like to ask is "How are we as users supposed to distinguish between what information is okay to give out, and the information we should refuse to give up"? I don't feel that we as users should be pressured into giving up our privacy in order to have our desired personalization. Let me know what you think!