Before I started my current job as a programmer, I made it clear that I do not want to work on unsolicited advertising, surveillance or weapons technologies – the common reason being that I value enthusiastic user consent. Being hired by a company after having stated these preferences makes me confident that I will not be asked to work on anything of the above.

The “enthusiastic” bit is the important part: When a user browses a web site, that user does not enthusiasticly consent to being profiled for marketing activities. Whereas: When someone answers a questionaire about consumer behavior to get a bargain or collects points for a customer loyalty program, then you have explicit and unambiguous consent.

Besides being explicit, consent should be given freely. An ultimatum (like “If you do not accept the new privacy guidelines, you will never be able to see your family photos again.”) does not result in freely given consent.

When I interact with non-free software or “social networking” web pages I often notice dialogs that remind me of how really pushy people behave. If I ever come across a person that creates these kinds of dialogs that do not give users a real choice about what is happening, I might just ask them if I should hit them in the face “now” or “later” just to see what happens.