It all comes down a simple but very dangerous shift: the major websites of today’s web are not built for the visitor, but as means of using her. Our visitor has become a data point, a customer profile, a potential lead – a proverbial fly in the spider’s web. In the guise of user-centered design, we’re building an increasingly user-hostile web.

From Against an Increasingly User-Hostile Web

Are you a user? Or are you being used? A piece written seven years ago, but more relevant than ever.