Gene Spafford’s review of Database Nation, by Simson Garfinkel, was posted to the Interesting People mailing list last night. The recent troubles with DoubleClick have further driven home the need for awareness of how information about us is collected and used. Particularly bothersome to me is the idea that companies make money selling information about things that I do. Shouldn’t information about me be my property? Why should someone else be able to make money selling it. Isn’t that fundamentally wrong? (I haven’t yet read the book, so I have no idea if that position is discussed.)