Exactly. And it's supposed to be a unique hard-coded ID. Except that it can be edited in many cheapo soho routers and nic chips.
Look, there's big black-ops big-brother security issues (of which I'm not likely of interest, and I'm not likely to be able to counter) and there's legit commercial scamming and bungling where an online bank gets hacked or such (where I am a target, but am reasonably protected by a legitimate commercial entity) and then there's deserved scamming and bungling (Where I can avoid being a target by simply not surfing promiscuous sites like facebook or porn etc).
I'm not worried about the CIA, and can't do anything about it anyhow.
I'm -less- worried about banks (or even ebay) and legit institutions.
I lump facebook and twitter and porn into the third, "just don't go there" category.
Actually, I’m glad that the NSA and others are out there doing their job. I’m sure they have found and thwarted more than one thing that would make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
Sure, a few of them are jerks, and you always have the bureaucracy, but many are the best and the brightest.
And I don’t give a rat’s azz if wallyworld or whatever knows that I might want to buy a chain saw. As long as they don’t call me directly, load my mailbox with trash, or fill my inbox.
Most people have a very exaggerated sense of their place in the world. But I can still respect their (false) belief that they live a private existence.