Google as well as Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL among

others are gearing up to keep a much closer eye on all of us,

so that within five years these and other firms will routinely

track our movements, friends, interests, purchases and

5 correspondence – then make money by helping marketers

take advantage of the information.

These companies' brash plans are pushing us toward a

thorny choice that will determine the future of computing.

Google and other Web-oriented, information-service giants are

10 determined to build a breathtaking array of services based on

your personal information, and they're betting you'll be willing

to share it with them in order for you to reap the benefits. But

if we cooperate and let them in on the details of our lives, we'll

lose much of our privacy, and possibly a lot more.

15 A privacy backlash, however, would stifle these potentially

revolutionary services before they get off the ground – and

leave the computer industry's biggest plans for growth in

tatters. That may be just what some people want. The U.S.

Congress is considering four bills that would make it illegal to

20 collect and share information online or through cell phones

about people without clearer warning and permission. These

sorts of restrictions are already in effect throughout much of

Europe, thanks in part to European Union directives on privacy

and electronic communications passed in 2002 and 2003.

25 The good news is that there's no reason to choose

between technology and privacy. New technologies are

emerging that can doctor our data so that companies know

just enough about us to ply us with customized services, while

preventing them from getting a clear picture of our private

lives. The question is again one of trust: in this case, whether

people will come to trust the companies that are trying to build

these new technologies.

(abridged from Next Frontiers in Newsweek, April 3, 2006)