Years ago I wrote on here about a book called The Transparent Society by David Brin (I can't find the post). The conceit was that with the Internet everything will be visible so no one really has to worry about their privacy -- no one has any. The author didn't really predict social media interactions, and people giving information away, but the end the result is the same.
This relates to the paranoia about Facebook, etc. because you are giving information away everywhere on the Internet -- with every search you do on Google or other places, every website you visit, every time you buy over the Internet. It isn't just one single website that you have to be worried about -- each of them tracks you if they can, and even if they can't through your privacy settings you visits are often tracked by central advertising agencies -- which then decide which ads to serve to you.
So in other words, the old joke that "On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog" isn't really relevant anymore. Your information is tracked. diced and sold, and you can't call it back.
nice boy. now sit.
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