1625 i-Dentify

I know I harp a lot about privacy, but I'm truly amazed about how much we are willing to give away in personal information and how huge an industry there seems to be developing apps to do just that.
It's not so much that we're so stupid, it's that entrepreneurs recognize how endemically stupid we are. To the phrase, "We won't have our freedom taken away from us, we'll give it away...for a discount," needs to be stapled the other hoary adage, "There's a sucker born every minute."
And he's ready to use his iPhone to be i-Dentified by all and sundry.
Take the app "Magic Plan," supposedly to help you remodel your house. It creates a floor plan of your house using photos you take on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Gee, a complete floor plan of your home, including placement of valuables, stored on the same iPod you dangle from your neck when you jog. What could go wrong?
Let's just hope the person who finds it on the side of the road has no burgling iDeas.
Or want a discount on your car insurance? Progressive's Snapshot program, now available in 37 states, provides a palm-size tool that plugs into your car's diagnostic computer and logs the time of day you drive, mileage, breaking rates, and acceleration.
Cool. Nice to know your insurance can go up if you brake to avoid a deer, or speed up to swerve from a lane-changing semi. AllState has a similar program. And they give you a discount just to sign up. If that worries you, there are other snoopy alternatives. You could sign up for actual GPS tracking from other insurance companies.
This is America, we still have some choices about how and who we allow to violate our privacy.
America, ya gotta love it.