I like your proposal that each person flood the internet with the kind of personal information they want others to see. Clearly, we're all going to have to be very purposeful in the way we approach our online activities.

- Mary

I like your proposal that each person flood the internet with the kind of personal information they want others to see. Clearly, we're all going to have to be very purposeful in the way we approach our online activities.

- Mary

Online providers do a poor job of disclosing what they may do with the information. Too many Terms of Service are written by lawyers, for lawyers, instead of for the user.

As you point out, they ask too many mandatory questions up front. Personally, the more questions I have to answer, the more likely I am to not use the service. I like to add information gradually as I see how the information can help me.

The point I was trying to make was that if you flood the internet with the information that you want to be public. It can overcome other, perhaps unwanted information.

You're right that we do have control over what we choose to put online. However, online providers don't make it easy. Some folks have resorted to white lies in order to get past a mandatory section of a provider's registration form that seem too intrusive. Further, lots of folks don't exercise lawyerly caution when it comes to putting their personal material online. They might be shocked to discover how much a stranger can learn about them with relatively simple online research.

Yes, we do have choices. But I'm not sure that folks appreciate the lengths they might have to go to in order to protect their privacy AND participate online. And, this level of effort isn't welcomed by all — especially during their leisure hours.

- Mary

I don't think privacy is over-valued. After all, we are largely choosing what we publish online. The first step is making information available. We choose that information. If a service asks too much, I don't enter.

To a large extent we still control the information. We are not surrendering it to a central authority, but instead are dispersing it to multiple sources. The web enables publishing. Its not a central authority publishing information.

For someone like you who self-publishing so much information, you are controlling that flow.