But as a practical matter, how do we manage this? There are some things that just should be private! - V Mary Abraham

There is no total privacy on the web. By connecting two computers and transferring data, you give privacy away at some level of risk in exchange for something. - Clay

A good rule of thumb is, if you aren't comfortable sharing a piece of information by using a megaphone in the middle of Times Square, you shouldn't put it online. If you want something to stay private, don't post it online, especially on a social network. - Mark Trapp

Privacy is a modern concept put there by people living in towns and cities to big for word of mouth to spread about who we are. - Richard A.

@Mark Trapp, then why does Facebook have privacy controls? - Tinfoil 2.0

I've been posting all kinds of family stuff online at an unlisted URL for years. Nothing super-secret, but I wouldn't use a megaphone in Times Square. - Bruce Lewis

Kara misses a number of key points, including the fact that Facebook's (new) TOS is draconian compared to virtually all other large services. - Tinfoil 2.0

Richard - I don't know what you're on but privacy is not a "modern" concept unless you want to consider all of the last millenium modernity. - Mattie Kenny from fftogo

How do those privacy controls prevent your friends or people who can see your profile from copying the information on your profile and posting it in a public area? You've given your information over to people who are not you, and they can do whatever they want with it: privacy controls are as effective as window locks; if a burglar breaks the window and unlocks the window, we don't start getting angry at the window lock maker, do we? - Mark Trapp

In the grand scheme of mankind as a whole privacy is modern. When you're a child going to the local school everyone knows you and you know everyone. As a result you don't have "privacy" or anonimity. - Richard A.

Mark, everything that is possible is not necessarily legal, moral, ethical, or desirable. There are social norms for how most people treat different kinds of information from friends of varying levels of intimacy. - Tinfoil 2.0

Mark, that's why I don't accept just anyone to be my friend on facebook. I avoid having strangers for that precise reason. - Richard A.

Privacy controls and terms of service are not going to institute your idea of social norms: one need only to look at the brief history of the internet for example after example. An awareness of the technical inability to control your data should not be mitigated by a false sense of "privacy:" if you don't want others to be in control of your data, don't post it online. - Mark Trapp

Logical thing would be simply not to post really private information online. Not that hard not to post street addresses and more. I say that as a user of google latitude though. - Richard A.

Privacy controls shouldn't "institute" social norms, but they should support social norms. I have a pretty good sense of what I'm willing to put online in various forums and what not to. The point with FB's new TOS is that it is very anti-user. - Tinfoil 2.0

Excellent piece. Period. - Charlie Anzman

Jason - bingo. It is a site for everyone and sharing is so simple, that everyone uploads all of their content without thinking. Even grandmothers. At least us (well the people harping about the TOS changes) have an understanding of *what* the stipulations are. Half of my friends on Facebook don't even know what Twitter IS. - Mona Nomura

They don't need to know what twitter is. Would be boring to have everyone I know in the physical world using the site. More fun when it's more international. - Richard A.

Mona - Can you imagine how many people are wondering what a TOS is? (Sad but probably true...) - Charlie Anzman

Perhaps I wasn't clear, but my point was: people are talking about how stupid this issue is and we need to 'get over it'. Fact is, most users are not as savvy as 'us' and unfamiliar with Social Networks. What is common knowledge to you, may not be common knowledge to them. And like Jason said above, the scariest part is the false sense of security. @Charlie - that is why I explained it the way I did on PixelBits. - Mona Nomura

Mona - Have a feeling there's a HUGE segment of your generation (+/-) that may have a big surprise when they apply for jobs, etc ... later in their lives. It's been talked about before, but you're right, and its good to bring it up again every once in a while ... Did someone say politics?? :) - Charlie Anzman

One 'gotcha' about social networks is not what YOU share, but what your FRIENDS share. I have more than a handful of friends who've been burned by photos other people shared on social networks. so even if you're not on a social network, actively sharing, you're still at risk if you have an actual social life offline. - .LAG liked that

Word of mouth will "gotcha" just as lethally though. In the same way you don't tell certain friends certain secrets you don't mention certain things to certain friends. - Richard A.

Summation - With everyone running around with streaming cellphones soon, the next time you pass gas ... it'll be on YouTube - Charlie Anzman

If you're an iphone user that is (gas joke) - Richard A.

Most people think it's a typo. "Did you really mean POS?" ha. - Mona Nomura

Privacy is not a black or white thing: it is true that if I share a link to a picture of my daughter, chances are that if I remove that picture, someone has made a local copy and can still access it. But what is sad is that facebook is working against privacy. They should help me remove the link to those pictures if I decide to do so instead of saying: no we are going to make sure that there is no chance you can remove that link. - Edwin Khodabakchian

I doubt there is such thing as an "unlisted URL", Bruce. Ever tried googling this content you mention? - Alexandros Georgiadis

I agree with Edwin. It's different to have to live with consequences than making sure there are consequences. Shouldn't there be a period within which to accept the changes or clear our data? - Alexandros Georgiadis

yesterday I went into a local art store to buy some pens, and before the cashier rang me up, he asked for my email address. Taken aback, I told him firmly I wasn't going to give it to him. Couldn't imagine announcing it in a store full of people...lol. He couldn't understand my reticence. Generational, I'm sure. For many there is no barrier between online and offline life, privacy-wise. I'm a bit more schooled in what happens when TMI is revealed online... - Karoli

You'd better start wearing a mask, people know your face. - Richard A.

nah, they can know my face and my name and still not know where I live or how to email me. :) - Karoli

Alexandros, both robots.txt and meta tags are used to advise search engines not to index my family pages. It's got essentially the same level of privacy as a photo holiday card printed at a store and mailed to lots of friends and family. Absolutely secret, no. Available to random strangers, no. - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

If you want to keep it private, don't put it in an electronic medium that is easy to distribute. Passwords, SSL, HTTPS, regardless. - Ryan Stanley

I work a lot with teachers and MS/HS students. One thing that always interests the teachers is how the the concept of privacy is just downright different for their students. Things teachers would hold close to their chest students will post and not care about the privacy of it (they have other, deeper, darker secrets they're not posting, I'm sure). Point is, the world is changing and the younglings are naturally changing with it. - Ryan Stanley

At some point, the act of not participating will become suspicious. I think that is the scary part. Social networks operate on peer pressure - the peer pressure to join. So, eventually, in my opinion, the question shifts to why are you sharing private information about yourself on the internet to why aren't you. - levinsontodd

Todd: when my friends were moving out of the US, they decided against Amsterdam because over there they leave the curtains open all the time and you look like a criminal if you close them (so they were told). So it's not like it hasn't happened before ... definitely something to watch for. - LJF Wolffe

LJF Wolffe: I agree, not a new historical precedent at all and one that has had more dire consequences than social pressure to keep your curtains open. - levinsontodd

Absolutely. Being perceived as "something to hide" is often worse than actually hiding something. (Which is why I tried to set a pattern in FB from the beginning of not sharing anything I don't want to see in a FB ad. Which means no pictures. For me.) - LJF Wolffe

Jason Kaneshiro: I don't think it's the opposite. On social networks, you're not connecting with a real person, your connecting with an representational version of a person. In a way, you still are getting away from people. - levinsontodd