Privacy on the Internet Privacy from Companies5/2/2000; 10:54:15 PM Feb 22, 2000: "No one tracks a shopper as he visits various stores in a mall or keeps notes on what products he looks at. But in cyberspace, that shopper's behavior -- which Web sites he visits, and which ads he clicks on -- can all be instantly recorded and compiled, albeit through computer-based identifiers rather than by name."You know, I've heard that a lot. But is it really true that no one tracks a shopper in a mall? While window shopping can be tracked on the Internet while your real-life shopping can't, that's about the only difference for a lot of people. If you use a credit card, you can be tracked on what you actually purchase quite easily (and that information is more valuable then what you simply look at, if you think about it). This particular aspect of privacy is one you gave up when you started using your credit card. The biggest difference is that on the Internet, you have no choice... you can't get out of the tracking.Point? Privacy violations aren't new to the Internet, and any eventual policy should really take that into account, which means that any eventual Internet decisions may well have repercussions in the real world.