ajc.com | Opinion | Mike King

AJC weasel on why they need to ask probing personal questions about their readers:

By registering your age, where you live, the general range of your household income and other information, we can show advertisers on the site whom they are reaching and where. Advertisers in the print version of the newspaper have some idea of those demographics now by looking at our audited circulation figures.

Except that I, and many others, have a standing policy of lying on these questionaires. I have no problem with giving out strictly demographic information, but you don’t need my home address, much less my phone number. What I usually do is put “1313 Mockingbird Lane” for the street address and “(555) 555-5555” for the phone number. And I lie about the demographics too, saying I’m a 55-year-old woman who makes $60,000 a year as a dog walker, because anyone who pries that much doesn’t deserve a straight answer.

(Cross-posted to War Liberal.)