Internet creepiness

Doing research for my essay on the rights and wrongs of the leveraging of customer data has got me thinking. The internet is kinda creepy. Until recently, I didn't realize that companies actually take information that you give out (name, e-mail, address, household income, spending patterns, you name it) and sell it to other companies.

So this made me think about all the times I signed up for accounts online. Hi5, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Xanga, Gmail (and all other Google accounts), Youtube, email newsletters, and other things that I don't even remember signing up for or if I signed up for or not - Bebo, Ning, Friendster, Who Remembers Me, and many many many more.

And with the knowledge in mind that I am being monitored and my information is being shared, I went and unsubscribed from mailing lists, I went and deleted my Wikispaces account. After deleting my Wikispaces account, this window showed up:


(click to see it bigger)

The important line is: "If you have deleted it in error, send an e-mail to help@wikispaces.com letting us know your username and e-mail address." So does this mean that even though I have deleted my account, they still hold my information in their databases?

Just something that has been in my mind today.