Privacy and Advertisements

I would like to discuss the way in which I believe that some forms of technology have so completely invaded our privacy that in the process, they have taken away our freedom. The type of technology that I am mostly referring to is the billboards that can determine what kinds of products you are interested in and then advertise them to you by speaking in your head. As crazy as it seems, technology has allowed a billboard, a seemingly inanimate object, to read someone's mind and then speak to them in a way that no one else can hear. Though this can be viewed by some as the "next generation of advertising," to me it is just a horrible invasion of privacy and one that threatens our freedom. There are so many ways these days in which our freedom is limited in the name of national security or protection in some form, all of which I completely support - but to invade someone's personal thoughts in the name of advertising is the Consumer Panopticon gone too far. There are times where our privacy has to be invaded in the name of a bigger good, but this is not one of those situations. Our minds are the only place in which we have ultimate privacy and the ability to think whatever we want without the opinions or judgments of others, and these thoughts should not be invaded and then used to the advantage of someone else. While talking about Lessig in class, we discussed the question, "Are we free only insofar as the technology that exists is imperfect enough that we don't have to worry about people observing us all the time?" If this is what freedom is, then not only has our privacy been taken from us, but also our freedom.