Natty Chatter

In this modern age, the problem with information on the Internet is that despite whatever measures are in place, they are inadequate. From security protocols to firewalls to encryption to passwords, each measure can be and has already been compromised either directly or indirectly.

In recent news, Facebook, the social networking website, had to shut down part of their service because of a security breach that allowed non-authorized users to see the information that had been restricted by the original users. Furthermore, recent changes to the terms of service of Facebook now gives the authors of applications to keep all information for as long as they wanted. Previously, authors of applications had to delete the information they gathered after 24 hours. Moreover, it also looks that that Facebook has decided that they would automatically shared all your information with their special partner sites without letting you know. If that weren't enough your "friends" on Facebook could also potentially share your information to Facebook's partner sites as well.

Fortunately, Facebook does allow you to unshare and prevent other leaks of your information by either changing default settings and also by removing applications that you're uncomfortable with that have your information.[1]

Alternatively, you could just follow the axiom that if you don't want anyone to know about something personal, don't ever post it somewhere online.

Footnotes:

1. Downloadsquad's Guide to protecting your information on the New Facebook (http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/04/26/a-guide-to-protecting-your-information-privacy-on-the-new-facebook/)