AC Grayling: wrong on digital privacy

Oh dear. AC Grayling, Prospect'sresident and favourite philosopher, seems a little tired of life. In the Guardian this morning he is to be found bemoaning, like so many before him, the passing of privacy. And guess what? Its the internet that is to blame. Grayling is a magnificent public figure, a serious thinker, and a valuable communicator of ideas. But the truth is that his "luminous trail" - and I wondered, for a moment, did this refer to his magnificent mane of hair? - has been with us a lot longer than he may realise. The electoral register, the telephone book, national health records, child benefit books, the old age pension and driving licences all keep records on us. The thing that is new is that now it is electronic. But apart from that Google simply is not as new as we think.

Let's not get too hung up on the worthy and portentous words of the Human Rights Declaration, the reason AC writes mourning. Where we might agree is that I see little connection between this and the way we really lead our lives. Of course there should be levels of security on the internet, to prevent identity theft. Of course, people should be able to opt out of the varying levels of high-tech scrutiny, whether it's Tesco's manipulation of your shopping preferences or the cookies dropped on to your laptop to measure your online behaviour, as i wrote about in my essay for Prospect, last month. But what every idealistic discussion of privacy must also acknowledge is the benefits of releasing our personal data - most importantly to ourselves, but also to the wider economy.As i argued last week, it's beginning to get us advertisements targeted more accurately at our interests. And for those who say "I don't want any ads, thank you," that's fine. But for most of us ads served in this way will become an essential part of the economy  and may well pay for our TV-style entertainment in the future. (Such data can even help us with everyday concerns, such remember important dates, something perhaps even the normally tenacious Mr Grayling might find occasions to use!) Set our data free, and we gets quicker, more accurate searches on Google, better services from websites where we shop, and a better selection of articles we like from the New York Times, or even the Guardian. Now, surely even a great man like AC can agree to that?