Privacy: Think Your Personal Info Is Private? Think again.

Thanks to the availability of personal information on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, privacy has all but disappeared for Internet users.  This fact, according to recent studies, has become a reality mainly due to online friends posting an individual’s information without his/her consent.  As a result, identity thieves can find everything from social security numbers to employer information if they look hard enough.

Even more frightening is the recent ability of companies to correctly predict an individual’s likes and dislikes using a pattern of accessible online information.  Researchers, as quoted by Steve Lohr’s article in The New York Times, believe that the combination of online social communication can actually create “social signatures.”

In response to the growing concerns about Internet safety, the Federal Trade Commission and Congress have mulled over the idea of incorporating a “do not track” list for web use since 2007.  The list would work similarly to the popular “do not call” registry.