Good article, but he almost lost me when he started with the passport thing: European privacy laws apply to European residents (regardless of citizenship) and not to European citizens living outside of the European Union.
The latter would be unenforceable anyways. In fact, the United States is the only major country exporting laws on their citizens living abroad (e.g. taxes).
EDIT: And, in fact, detecting the ___location of an Internet user (while not perfect) unfortunately works very well for "regular" users not well versed in VPNs and proxying - think YouTube country restrictions or also Google Maps' approach to display different maps depending on the user's ___location.
The latter would be unenforceable anyways. In fact, the United States is the only major country exporting laws on their citizens living abroad (e.g. taxes).
EDIT: And, in fact, detecting the ___location of an Internet user (while not perfect) unfortunately works very well for "regular" users not well versed in VPNs and proxying - think YouTube country restrictions or also Google Maps' approach to display different maps depending on the user's ___location.