Notions of Privacy

Both Yahoo! and Google launched features to save search queries. As expected, the Privacy experts have something to say:

"It's really a bad idea," said Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum. "If you need to keep track of your past searches, I recommend using a notebook."

Oh! common Dixon..Stupidity has limits!! (with all respect for your good intentions, i never understood)

I never get the point of these guys into my Head. They make a hue and cry over every step taken to provide users a better service even when there are options to enable/disable the feature. Moreover, We (atleast me) hardly have any sensitive personal information registered with these sites. Their cookies can only track what we are searching, the sites we choose from their search engines, the mails we receive(gmail only). AFAIK, this knowledge of us is only used by some computer algorithms to serve us better (Remember, Personalised Search).

When we are enjoying all these free services, there is nothing wrong in trusting these "Do No Evil" guys right!! One issue they also complain about is Government can use this information. Why should they not use it? If it is going to be used for the common good (like tracking criminals and stuff)

It could be that I don't understand the concept of privacy and how serious Dixon's concerns are OR These people mix up some serious issues with very trivial things to draw attention and end up creating a totally different impression.

BTW, Is there something we can share with >10 people but should not share with 6.7Bn people?