It looks like Ghostery already does (part) of the job of figuring out what clickstream data is being collected. So the focus really should be on parsing out what voluntary self-restraint the privacy policies promise and displaying that in iconized form alongside an icon for what data they actually collect.

As to the real issue--adoption--maybe we don't need bundling into Firefox if we can get PrivacyMinder? as a standard (default enabled) feature in another popular plugin like AdBlock? Plus. It's worth sending Wladimir Palant an email to see if he'd be willing to do that (or at least to including Ghostery/the EasyPrivacy? list as defaults in Adblock Plus) If not, well, you can always fork the Adblock code to fold in the extra features. But then we'd be back to square one -- engineering adoption of an unknown plugin.

Rick, you also bring up future backlash against sites that depend on user-generated content. By this, I imagine you mean places like Facebook/Myspace/Twitter/YouTube/Flikr. If/when that backlash happens, it'll be a good catalyst for the adoption of technological measures like PrivacyMinder? , I'm sure. But we shouldn't stop there. If the backlash can be nurtured, then perhaps it can be channeled to achieve more legislative privacy protection as well. But Facebook at least has been pretty quick in backing down from past controversial changes. And once they do, people seem to forget all about privacy again. (Maybe they don't and I'm just jaded--but I get the impression that the average internet user has a very short attention where privacy is concerned. There's a chasm between outrage and action.)

-- AndreiVoinigescu - 04 May 2009