Online privacy is a hot topic and the accuracy and detail with which you can be tracked as you bounce from Web site to Web site should be an issue of great concern to both consumers and corporate IT.

Many people say they don't really care about being tracked, arguing that they have nothing to hide about where they browse and with whom they communicate, so nothing needs to be kept private.

But here's the problem: The tracking that can now be done by paying attention to details of your Web browser is akin to the staff of a department store following you around and noting every mole and wrinkle on your body, what you're wearing and everything you pay attention to. Then they attach flags to you so they can identify you on subsequent visits to their stores or any of their affiliates. I think everyone would care about that.

Because mostly we aren't aware of this in-depth examination and cataloging of our browsing, we hardly think about it. Perhaps we tend to operate under the old adage, "what you don't know won't hurt you" or "ignorance is bliss."

As corporations become ever more skilled at following our digital tracks they acquire knowledge that enables them to maximize their messaging and selling abilities by customizing how they present themselves to us. The result? It becomes easier to sell goods, services and information to consumers.

And from the viewpoint of a corporation dealing with other corporations online, how much do you really want your competitors, suppliers and customers to have deep insight into what your staff is paying attention to online?

If you want to learn just how identifiable you are through your browser configuration, go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Panopticlick. Click on the big red "Test me" button and prepare to be amazed.

I was surprised to learn that my browser fingerprint "appears to be unique among the 496,910 tested so far." Perhaps the fingerprints of all browser instances are unique because the system simply hasn't tested enough to find duplicates. And it turns out that it doesn't require many data points to uniquely identify something.

The whole concept of browser fingerprint is explained in an article on the EFF site titled A Primer on Information Theory and Privacy. This article applies the idea of 'entropy' to data and tells us that "as of 2007, identifying someone from the entire population of the planet required … 32.6 bits of information." 32.6 bits -- that's amazingly small!

So, take what you know about my browser's profile and add other information such as my age or my ZIP code that I, like you and you and you, give away without a second thought, and we can be identified, tracked and eventually completely known for any and all purposes whether we like it or not.

Check out the Panopticlick, let me know how identifiable you are and what you plan to do about it.

Gibbs might be in Ventura, Calif., than again, he might not. You don't need to know. Equally he might be at gearhead@gibbs.com. Find out.