This is a moderately interesting article that discusses a big issue. It is almost impossible today to engage in commerce without revealing some sort of personal information and corporations are setting an early expectation with young children that giving out personal information is okay. Even something as seemingly harmless as building a teddy bear with your toddler presents a privacy and data aggregation risk. Why does the video professor send you those free DVDs? Because your name on a list as being interested in computers and software is worth more to him on the secondary market than the cost of the DVD.

You see, each Build-A-Bear critter is issued a “birth certificate,” which is generated after the kids — and hopefully their parents, though that didn’t seem to be making a bit of difference on the common sense front — visit a bank of computers. These are big orangey-purple affairs, sort of Dr. Seussian in presentation. The keyboard buttons include stars and other colored shapes to make data input all the easier and more intuitive for youngsters. In fact, the computer-plus-keyboard experience is very close (no doubt intentionally so) to something children and their parents might have experienced in a kids’ museum, library, or school. Before their new friend can get its birth certificate, the kids are prompted to enter a host of very personal personal information: birth date, home address, gender, phone, and email among them. (ZDNet)

Update:  January 26, 2008 - It turns out Build a Bear listens to bloggers, including yours truly and have provided additional clarification and offered to take some of the Denise Howell’s recommended changes to heart.  (Update from Denise)

Popularity: 100% [?]