asl?

Do you remember the days when the Internet was anonymous?

We'd join an IRC channel or register a screen name for some other service using names like "skaterboy83" or "i_love_pizza". Children and adults alike were encouraged to never share any self-identifying information that could link their online presence with their physical one. So to connect, we'd get an idea of who we were talking to with this inquisitive acronym: "asl?" ASL stood for Age, Sex, Location, and it was the totality of identifying information individuals would share on the Internet.

That's all changed now. Now the Internet has been monetized with advertising, and that requires two steps: 1) building buying profiles of individuals' and demographics' buying habits, 2) identifying individuals online either respectively or in their demographics so as to serve advertisements to them.

Can we go back to the old days? For future generations' sake, we need to. Our children are not being brought up in a culture of privacy, and that can only serve to harm them.