I got tempted by one, many years ago, at a chain store I frequented, but the application wanted my Social Security Number. I said 'no', they said 'Can't take it without the SSN', I said, 'fine, give me the application back, I'm destroying it.' And no card for Ellen. I rarely shop there any more, either.
I'd guess they "took in" the SSN's of everyone that got a card. As well as full name, current address, etc etc.

Just imagine what could be done with that.

Ellen, 22nd level Necromancer of Threads

We have all taken personality inventories in school, not to mention the web quizzes that determine the color of your aura or your good/evil/lawful/chaotic orientation or whatnot.

The genuine personality inventories of various types were designed by people with training in psychology and sociology. They come up with a few dozen questions and draw some conclusions based on a single test.

Just imagine what conclusions can be drawn from thousands of questions (do you like this? y/n)

Big business is interested in your buying habits so that they can target advertising. The various governments may be more interested in your political views and the probability that you will do something that they don't like.

I know that I'm on several lists. Businesses know that I like technology and science. The guv'mint knows that I am a veteran and proud of it. I am probably on some gay lists, too, based on the fact that I am all for civil rights for everyone, and the group that is currently fighting for their rights is the LGBT folks. The fact that I'm getting ads for the WWW bear network, or something like that, bears it out. [snicker]

Yeah, they got that one wrong. Sorry, folks, but I'm not attracted to guys. You're wasting your advertising money.

Except that they really aren't. When you advertise, you expect that the vast majority of the people who see your ads will have no interest. If you only manage to cut out half of the targets that aren't interested, you have still saved lots of money.

By the way, it's not just FB and G+. They are able to identify you (your computer, actually) individually. Someone set up a site that tests for that, and I tried it with three or four different browsers, and all came back with the same answer.

I didn't try it using other access points or do anything really scientific like that, but that's not the point. If they can get even a quarter of your browsing history, they can infer a lot from that data.

The good thing is that you're unique, just like everyone else. [snicker] Sure, we're all on lots of lists, but so are billions of other people. If someone wants to target you individually, it can be done -- just like it can be done with any other of the billions of internet users.

If you stand out, you may be targeted. For instance, if you're a former general and the director of the CIA, someone may sort through your emails and find letters that you sent to your mistress.

If you have a security clearance, be very careful. You are a potential target for blackmail. Someone may ask for some minor favors in return for not telling your family that you like to read TS fiction.

There are ways to browse anonymously, if you want to bother. Using the TOR network works well. If you want to be even more paranoid, burn a TAILS disk and boot from it any time you want to browse. It leaves no traces on your computer, and the web sites that you browse can't trace you via your IP address.

I unapologetically live a life in stealth and am actually very puritanistic in the eyes of some folk. Someone in the local GBLT organization has taken offense by my excercising my freedom to not support them. Some of the things they get up to are just mean and vile.

The conservatives are not your only potiential enemies. Some of the diversity crowd get offended if you are not diverse enough.

Gwendolyn