So this has become an increasing concern of mine. It first started for me with “The New York Times”. Someone would link to an article I would blindly click it to only be confronted with a logon screen to read the goddamn news. It’s now happeneing with increasing regularity. I use Google News to get a snapshot of whats going on and many more Newspapers are requiring registration and not just the large ones. The most recent was “The Austin American Statesman” for an article on the police action at SXSW linked by Abstract Dynamics.

Has there been a fundamental shift in the view of the news gatherers regarding privacy? Why can’t I get the same privilege online as I would walking up to the corner shop to buy the paper? Why is this primarily happeneing in traditional newspapers and not alternative sources, aggregators?

“The New York Times” has succeded in training me to not click on those links anymore. I will not do it. First off how accurate can this information being collected actually be? I know of at lest 3–4 LARGE communities that use a fake registration just to pass the information along. Thereby skewing the numbers and ruining the information gathered. Secondly this really is scary how newgatherers have turned against the privacy of they’re audience.

I just don’t know, but I for certain don’t like where we are headed with this.