The medium of the internet has made social networking so much more ... networked. Through sites like Livejournal, Xanga, MySpace and Facebook, users are able to connect with people who share similar interests whether they live two km or 20,000 km away. (I'm not even going to address the phenomena of real life friends needing to cement their friendship through online linking, it could be a topic of its own) However, in order to facilitate such wide spread networking it is required that users submit copious amount of information about themselves and they do so very willingly. Full name, birthday, location, school(s), interests, hobbies, photos, all of this very personal information is sent to the servers of these private companies. Even the matrix of relationships and friendships contributes to the intelligence which could be mined from such a resource. And yet very few users pause to consider with whom they are turning over their personal information.

Those who do question have turned up some interesting links which are shady at best and potentially dangerous at worst. MySpace's corporate officers have a shady business history which leads to questions about what kind of ethics are being used in handling so much personal data. Facebook has a privacy policy with such gems as:

Facebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services. This information is gathered regardless of your use of the Web Site.

Hello, Big Brother.

It goes on to give the normal spiel about only sharing information with third parties including "responsible companies with which we have a relationship." This seems fairly innocuous until you find out some of the companies with whom Facebook has a "relationship." As discussed in an article from last August, the venture capital firms which invested in Facebook are run by corporate officers which have previous links to the CIA and DARPA (who brought you not only the internet but also the Information Awareness Office). As pointed out in the above article:

One of IAO's original example technologies included "human network analysis and behavior model building engines," a surprising echo of the social networking mapping that Facebook does using SVG visualizations.

Now I will be the first to admit that the articles I've referenced are by no means ironclad proof of anything underhanded taking place. However, they raise interesting questions that I feel need to be asked by more people. Who is collecting all this personal information? What is it used for? What might it be used for in the future?

There have already been rumors of employers using Facebook when vetting interviewees and students being busted for alcohol and drugs based on photos shared through such services. In light of this and the aforementioned information, the need for personal responsibility in sharing such information is made very clear. Despite the cool, trendy nature of such services, users should not blindly fill out the forms with all their personal details without knowing who it is will have access to such data. Technology has given us great opportunities but it still falls to us, the users, to ensure it is wielded responsibly.