“Trust No One” is about the best advice you can get when it comes to internet privacy. When a big site promises you that it won’t sell, give, collect or use the personal data that you will trust it with – don’t believe a word.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “Facebook, MySpace and several other social-networking sites have been sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers’ names and other personal details, despite promises they don’t share such information without consent.”.
That really says it all. These sites (as well as Digg, LiveJournal, Hi5 and Xanga) sent advertising companies personal information about users – without the users ever agreeing to it.
People commenting to these news sound less than surprise, as if expecting this to happen. It seems that many people have already given up their privacy and don’t really care what sort of personal information is floating out there. For those of you who still care, just know that when it comes to information – everything is for sale and all bets are off. It’s up to you to decide what will you do about it.
