Suppose you want to go to the movies tonight. Or perhaps your favourite band is coming to town. To secure a ticket for the event, you decide to buy one online. You select the event details, make sure you selected the right date and time, choose the e-ticket option (provided the shop even offers alternative delivery options), and you are ready to proceed to checkout and pay.
But wait.
Somewhere along the ordering process you are required to sign in to your account at the online ticket shop. If you don’t have an account yet, you’ll have to create one, and you will probably be asked to provide your full name, home address, phone number and email address. In some cases you will have to provide more information, like your age, and perhaps your credit card number (for future purchases). Doesn’t that surprise you? No? Perhaps you are so used to it now, so conditioned to it, that you no longer really notice this identification step, let alone question it. Apparently you have bought into the myth that ‘they’ always need to know who you are. But do they, really?
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