wheel - 11:31 pm on Aug 30, 2011 (gmt 0)

The integrity of their service.

WTF does that even mean.

Of course they could but does that mean they should and they are wrong for not?

Yes it means exactly that. It's private, sensitive, and people (not just me) strenuously object to their requiring it.

You're puzzled by the furor. Realize that people care about this stuff - you're not going to reason me out of my opinion that my personal information is NOT for Google's consumption - and tough freakin' cookies if they can't maintain the integrity of their service without it.

Frankly, I get pissed when people ask me for personal information for stupid reasons. The electronics store asks me for my location - I refuse. The village idiot that works there doesn't figure out to just enter in 555-5555 for my phone number, they look at me with slack-jawed like I'm the unibomber. And no, I'm not going to suggest they put in 555-5555, they can figure that out all by themselves.