Chris

Check out this article on Boing Boing - http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/27/boarding_pass_hacker.html

The problems start to happen when you don't fall within one of the socially accepted 'normal' categories.

Personally the jury is out over Facebook. I'm not convinced by it's walled garden approach or that it really offers any benefits to me. But then I'm a grumpy old man.

- Neil.

yea...no need to give in to fear...show it...flaunt it...expression is healthy...communication is necessary...let others collect their data...and we shall collect our own...

as the wise words go...power to the people...dont run and hide...confront the beast...

so If I have been writing that i am a succesfull famous artist for the past decade, it's been compounded and recorded for posterity?

so relax. If you want to publish go ahead. If not it's your choice. It's no different to Tescos checking what you are eating this week.

Hello Chris,

It was a strange moment when I registered and was asked where I know my friend from ... what a curious website, it is not their business, I thought. But like everywhere on the net and in RL one can give out the information one wants to share with others and ignore questions one doesn't like. And Bloggers reveal much more data in their personal posts. Facebook is just more efficent. :-)

It seems to me that Facebook is a good networking tool. With "real" people (and not some "asdfgh" - you see my point) finding like-minded "real" people.

- Martina

Doesn't really matter to me. If I were a serial killer or on the FBI most wanted list or had anything else to hide, I wouldn't post it on facebook.
And besides, what is america going to do with a list of the interests, sexual orientations and favourite films for any of their citizens, let alone someone from accross the Atlantic?

You can have all the facts you want, but without the wisdom to use it, it wont help you much. I will use Facebook but I will probably start to be a bit more circumspect about it. And I was concerned enough to publish the embed code for that on my blog for others to see

Aloha Chris,

I definitely think we should have European-style privacy (EU Data Directive). However, that won't happen anytime soon in the US of A. I prefer to engage with these new technologies and not let fear control my behavior. Of course it is always important to think before sending!

Cheers,
Jeff McNeill

Come on now the eye in the sky has been doing this for years even before the internet was around, for anyone to believe that any of their information will remain private is a fool unto them self's. Privacy only exist if you keep it in your head and they will find away to get information out form the brain soon....

C'mon, it even looks like a fed site...no colorful backgrounds to pick from.

My avatar has a facebook. My human thinks they can't be trusted with real information.

Lots of people defending Facebook here and deluding themselves that it is okay and really the CIA cant do anything with this information. Well in the words of Bill Hicks "your government is fucking you and you dont even see it", there are other better ways to contact your friends than somewhere that in its privacy policy says it will collect and store information about you, the sites you look at, newspaper articles and even your private messenger communications. All this stored against your name (number) somewhere, who knows what laws the government will bring in in the future probably in the name of this fake "terrorism" to use this information against you and to further control you. Or at the very best to market a load of shit you DO NOT NEED directly at you. I dont want to live on the third biggest mall from the sun, supporting this phony war against phony terrorists protected by an all seeing eye government at last feeling safe now ive had my children microchipped...