Most of us are aware that we can google for our online login name(s)/handles and find a large percentage of our postings to websites -- even this one. If you are bashful or undisciplined in your comments, you may elect to be creative in choosing your login name. Personally, I've related mine to my real name to remind me to be civil (but that's off the topic).

[fyi: you can use google to search any specific site with the search "site:domainname siteLogin" ]

With the advent of Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, ... there's a lot of information that is now public about you.

PRIVACY: Here's the bite; Cell phones can be tracked. Phones with GPS are trackable publically. On the surface this is cool; your friends can find you even in a city in which either of you are unfamiliar. If you use the site foursquare.com/learn_more, then wherever you 'checkin' your friends can find you.

So what? We do it to ourselves; we volunteer to wash our laundry in public, or in this case, tell everyone our business. Worse, pleaserobme.com scarfs up that information and in an effort to raise public awareness, putting it online for all to see. (very similar to open disclosure for attack vectors for virus') Now anyone can know that you are not at home -- and the consequences can be enormous. Back when the telephone answering machine was hi-tech, we quickly learned to avoid the announcement

Sorry, we're not home just now -- leave a message

and to opt instead for "we can't come to the phone at the moment ...".

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Olie, as far as I know, the GPS in cell phones went into effect after 9/11. While this may now be more readily available to the general public, it is not new. I'm sure the hackers and crackers have been doing it for years.

I read in horror what is being disclosed on the social networking sites. The last bit of news was that the founder of one of the sites was setting up a site where people could participate in having their credit card purchases tracked.

Privacy is a very important issue to be. Social networks-at least in the public eye-hadn't started when I began on a computer. And when I listen to what family members and friends both post and read on those sites, I am horrified.

But I remember years ago when I first began posting on an internet message board, how surprised I was at some of the personal information people posted about- the 'washing their dirty laundry in public' that you refer to. Making it "okay" because it's "social networking" is going t cost lot of people a lot- possibly even their life.

The ability to be both 'found' and 'anonymous at the same time has made cyberspace a whole new world- one that is frequently a threat. I don't think cyber-stalking is new either- we just hear more about it now.

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