Registering to read news sites such as nytimes.com or washingtonpost.com isn’t just annoying, it’s an invasion of your privacy.

When you register for your “free account” you give them your name and email, and if you’re stupid, your address, phone number, and date of birth, too.

Now the newspaper can track which stories you read. There are two ways this information can be used.

Example #1: Hmmm…. Gramma Smith in Boise sure likes our recipes section. Hey, she even checked out our cabbage and rhubarb cookies recipe three times yesterday. Let’s send her some spam, some junk mail, heck even let’s have telemarketers call her so that our advertiser can sell her seeds for their new genetically-modified rhubard that makes the moistest cookies.

Example #2: Tom Jones in Brooklyn sure seems to be reading a lot about terrorism lately. Maybe he’s a terrorist sympathizer. Worse, maybe he’s one of those long-haired hippie freaks who thinks the government shouldn’t be snooping on its citizens, reading their email, and tapping their phones without a warrant. Better pass this one on to the FBI.

Remeber this data never gets destroyed. Twenty years from now the New York Times is going to know what you’re reading today.

Question: do you trust large, for-profit corporations with personal details about your interests and reading habits? Do you trust the United States government not to subpoena this data with a National Security Letter?

Does registering your identity with the newspapers really seem like such a good idea?

Maybe it’s time to consider using bugmenot.com, where you can get free, anonymous logins to most of the major online newspapers.

If you value your privacy, never log in to one of these news sites again with your real name and email address — grab a free login from bugmenot instead.