“The one thing the Web 2.0 sites have in common is that they are furiously mining information about you and your buddies. What you like. What you like that your buddies like.”

That’s from an interesting article at Bit-Tech.net about how the rise of Web 2.0 sites such as MySpace.com and Digg could spell the end of our privacy online.

The crux of author Wil Harris’ argument is that as we put more and more of our personal information on these sites, companies will have more and more information about us and have better ways to market to us, our friends, and those who share our interests.

It’s an interesting argument and one that seems to hold some water. It’s especially interesting to those companies - including 3000K - who are venturing into Web 2.0 applications and projects.

Of course, we don’t necessarily need to put too much private information into sites like MySpace, but how many of us think about who might see it, and how it might be used, before we do? Interesting to think about how your posting decisions might change if you thought about which colleagues, companies, or competitors might see something before you hit “submit.”

And it’s worth remembering, too, that a lot of these social networking sites own your content as soon as you post it into their systems (though I’d imagine MySpace makes exceptions for things like MP3s). Another unexpected consequence of these sites that perhaps not as many people are aware of as should be.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 5th, 2006 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Deep Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.