Anyone who engages in a social media environment needs to remember that their thoughts and ideas will not only be shared with friends but an open network as well. However, on the flip side, users should have the ability to control their privacy on/off switch.

Ok, so I didn't expect my comment to sound as anti- as it maybe does! But as pro social media as I am, I do think that it's much harder to regain privacy once it's been lost than to protect it from the outset. Yes, much responsibility for the control of information rests with the individual, but we must also remember that information is power and competative advantage.

And I disagree with Ben above when he says that social media has all the privacy it needs. Clearly he's never tried to leave Facebook - a site which claims ownership and copyright over all information and content you post, and which does not delete closed profiles from its servers. The only way to guarantee privacy in many cases is to not engage in social media at all. What we need is a compromise that allows us to share, companies to learn from us, and that means we retain rights over the content we create.

That's where I believe social networking is headed - and I hope MArk Zuckerburg is one of the CEOs working on this - but we are not there yet by any means.

If you need so-called ‘social media experts’ to tell you that perhaps putting photos of yourself doing crack cocaine with a bunch of under-age prostitutes up on the web isn’t a good idea, then I don’t think social media is the problem. Almost nothing on the internet is really private; learn what is and what isn’t, deal with it and move on.

From working at MySpace I must admit I feel for Zuck.  It's never easy to have a site with +350 million people and have unanimous or well received decisions.  Someone will always be unhappy. There will always be detractors.

Facebook (and most social networks) have a history of privacy errors.  People react offline and online when their privacy is threatened.  The barrier to voice their opinions is so low these days that you can quickly get a groundswell of sentiment.

The issue is the privacy default stance.  People appear to feel like they are being tricked and that their data is leaking all over the place.  More education on how the data travels is necessary although as several people point out this is not in Facebook's (and their advertisers) best interests.

Share sensibly or you might just make Lamebook :  http://www.lamebook.com/

Matt, that was funny because it's true.

Paul, education is indeed needed as many Facebook users aren't 'tech geeks' and have no idea about the impact privacy could have on them in an employment situation, for example.

People's attitudes are changing, but I've yet to meet anyone happy to give me the full transcript of all their conversations with their parents, partner or children.

Even the keenest 'sharing is the new default' advocates reserve a large degree of privacy for themselves.

Heaven. Because in hell there would be no off button. The great thing about social media is that I control what I want to find, and I am like the majority of people out there and know what to keep private. Self control people.

Privacy is debatable. I think the same people who worry about privacy are likely those who contemplate purchasing ID theft insurance...in the long run, whatever you put online has the potential for being found -- forever.  Ironically, the generations who grow up knowing nothing BUT socnets are currently those pasting up those not-so-HR-friendly holiday parties and benders. Still, something tells me we'll get to the point where everyone just shrugs and understands that the Web is public and should always be treated as such.

Privacy? There are pictures online of me in my high school wrestling singlet from 20 years ago. There are pictures of me wearing tight-rolled jeans, white socks, black shoes, a motorcycle jacket, and a hat backwards. It is only a matter of time before those pictures taken of me on Bourbon Street, that I don't remember having taken, pop up. I am waiting for the blackmail letter. And I will pay good money to keep those offline. I only work in PR and am active in Facebook, Twitter, and blogging to ensure there is lots of other content related to me that hopefully will show up in earlier search results than the juicy stuff. So far, I'm damn successful. I have my privacy, as long as you don't click past page two in the Google search results, which is about as much as anyone could hope for in this day and age. Thank you very much 20-something could-be-a-gabillionaire Mark Zuckerburg.

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