I'm a hypocrite.

"Should we have privacy on the Internet?"

It seems like a simple question, right? A common response would be: "Yes! For God's sake, I don't want everyone to know what I'm searching!" However there's much more to this argument than what meets the eye--perhaps I should elaborate...

Even LOLCats need a little privacy.

A lot of people have a Facebook account (according to Zuckerberg over 800 million people have one), but it seems that there's a lot of buzz around privacy these days. Now people have to worry that whatever they choose to post on Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, could be viewed and shared by potential employers and even family for that matter. Not only that, but Facebook can now sell your information that you choose to share like your age, relationship status, and interests in movies & music. However, this brings me to my first point.

Mark Zuckerberg has all the right to sell this information. He's offering a free service, which you've chosen to use! Advertising brings in some revenue, but the real prize is in selling demographic information that businesses can use to hone in and reach their market. Truthfully, I don't mind that his company does this, but then again there's always a line.

Danah Boyd, an expert on new media, coined the acronym PEI (Personal Embarrassing Information), which is play on the well-known acronym PII (Personal Identifiable Information). It points out that maybe there's a difference between personal information that identifies us and personal information that is just plain embarrassing and private. Perhaps Facebook should be able to sell PII, but not PEI. Though it makes you wonder, where's the line?! Honestly, I don't think there is a line so I just follow a simple practice -- don't upload/post anything you don't want being used! It's easy, and saves you a possible headache down the road.

No one will ever understand it.

And I know that some of you are going to say, "Hey, Ross -- what if my friends upload something that I have no control over and it's about me?" I think a better question is: "Do you really want a Facebook then?" You're accepting all of the baggage that social networking carries when you have an account, and trust me -- Facebook's got a lot of baggage.