To Share, or Not to Share...

Read an interesting CNN piece this morning on the potential perils of social networking. Good food for thought as millions of lemmings rush headlong toward what may be a cliff. In our desire to be perceived as the "coolest new kid on the Facebook block," we may in fact be enabling identity theft. 

On Facebook, I can only download applications if I check a box allowing the developers to "know who I am and access my information," which means EVERYTHING on my profile, except my contact info. Hmmm, how do I know what they're going to do with my information...or even who THEY are associated with?  Oh wait a minute, that's right, I don't have any idea.

Don't get me wrong; I'm all for the honor system as long as I can have a reasonable expectation that I'm surrounded by honorable people. And I don't even mind "targeted advertising" as long as it's not too creepy. I also think that social networking has enormous benefits. It's just that the devil is in the details and we should all take a good hard look at the fine print before we agree to terms so that we know what we're signing up for. 

Not the fun part of social networking perhaps, but important nonetheless.