We Don't Need No Stinkin' Login

Found on Wired on Monday, 19 July 2004
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Increasingly, Web publishers, and in particular newspaper sites, are demanding that readers give up some of their personal information -- like e-mail addresses, gender and salaries -- in exchange for free access to their articles. The publishers say they need this information to make money from advertising.

BugMeNot.com is a site that generates login names and passwords for registration sites. The site is a boon to those who want to keep online anonymity or stamp out spam. According to the site's homepage, 14,000 websites have been "liberated" from registration bondage, and it's clear many people are doing whatever they can to avoid really logging in.

There's also Mailinator for those who want to register but don't want to use their real e-mail address. And there's spamgourmet for "eating" unwanted e-mails. There's also The New York Times link generator put together by an Illinois teen computer programmer, Aaron Swartz.

That's the reason why I don't read the NY/LA Times. I don't want to reveal personal information for something I can get free on other sites. And if there is no other way, I only enter completely bogus information. None of my registrations has contained anything useful so far; they only mess up databases.