Do you trust Facebook?

Do you actually trust facebook not to sell or otherwise use your personal infomation? Not sure that I do. They already offer targeted advertising based on your history and they are pretty accurate in doing so. I do enjoy using facebook, but I worry every time I login to facebook whether or not they have decided to sell that mythical thing - a facebook tracker.

So far not, but how long before they start selling them? A lot of people seem to be interested in watching the activities of people online, although a personal tracker may well be out of the question.

Whether or not they decide to start selling them, or using your personal information in some other way, you can bet most people will not believe it or carry on using face book any way. I personally now use a persona for most of my online activity, because there are some strange people out there. The same is true in the "real" world of course, but a lot more people have access to you in the virtual world of the Internet.

I think it is only a matter of time before these social networking sites start actually selling all your information to advertisers - or worse - the Governments - in order to keep a closer watch on you. We have little enough privacy as it is, buit things can certainly get worse - especially with so many people communicating online now.

I am not sure why people are so trusting of these social media type sites. Zuckerberg already sold out to the Wall Street bankers, and I imagine they will want a return on their investment - if not today, then at some point in the future, and one of the most obvious ways of doing that nowadays is to sell your information to someone.

Most likely it will be either a big corporation or a government that buys it. And lets face it - there is not much difference between the two institutions any more. Does it really make any difference if Exxon or the US Gov Inc buys it? Not really.

So - you have to ask yourself a question and then decide just how much information you are prepared to give away. I give the minimum - name rank and serial number is about all they get out of me. How much do you trust them? Do you give up all your personal information or keep it hidden?

And how long before the face tracking software is able to identify you accurately from a photo and - ultimately - the CCTV cameras that now litter the planet? Do you want your government to know where you are all the time? I know I do not.