Social Networks: Has Big Brother Arrived?

For some time, I have been wondering about all of the data that is exchanged on the Internet between individuals and companies and what is being done with that data, and where it is being stored and what it is being used for and who has access to it.  At the risk of sounding somewhat like a conspiracy theorist, I have a nagging feeling that somehow we are in for a rude awakening in this country as it relates to our privacy and our anonymity in our life.

This thought surfaced again as a result of a video by Loren Feldman and his friend Michelle’s take on the use of Facebook.  I’ll let you judge her reaction, but it seems that she represents a normal adopter of a social network.  I say normal because of the issues of the technical elite and the early adopters that are all but normal with new applications.  She innocently typed in her email address and password and suddenly realized that the application had just accessed all of public, private, known and unknown contacts that she has ever sent an email to with that email address.  Yes, she was a little taken aback by that, and she should be.

What are these companies doing with every keystroke and each of the addresses that pop up in a window of every adopter of their application.  Am I to think that their promise of “we won’t tell, cross our heart and hope to die” is supposed to make me not question what exactly is being done with that data?  Michelle is just but one user, now think of the access to all of the users in Facebook and the data becomes a staggering look into the lives of all of us.

Facebook tells me who is talking out there, and what they are saying, who is a friend I have in common with another friend, and it knows the opinions of those friends, and whether I agree with them.  It can access my credit cards when I buy a $1 gif image of a ice cream cone I send to a friend.  I am afraid to say that Facebook knows more about me than my own mother.  Think of the data acquired now in the wrong hands…”Conspiracy Theory”, not really, but I’m sure we’ll see a Crichton book and movie deal about the idea and what can happen.

UPDATE:  I couldn’t find this video in my original post but was able to find it later.  Big Brother can be very scary.