At some point in time I’m sure you’ve been asked to fill out a Plaxo card, join Friendster.com or been contacted to fill out some sort of information form to join a group or provide someone with your contact information. Participating in these activities may be a great away to organize your contacts or build social or profession networks, but is there a cost to your own privacy?
Some of the services, such as LinkedIn try to develop a chain of trust. Everyone is related by degrees. A friend who invites you into her network is one degree from you in your network - you know her directly. All of her first-degree contacts are two degrees from you, and you can request introductions to those second-degree contacts via your friend. Your personal network within LinkedIn extends all the way out to those with whom you have fourth-degree relationships, but introductions can only be made, requested, or passed along via first-degree relationships. Anyone can decline to make an introduction to anyone else along the way. But even via this chain of trust, your information can get disseminated very quickly.
As the social networking software market heats up, there continues to be privacy issues surrounding these services. Drummond Reed, CTO of Seattle-based Cordance Corp. is quoted in a NewsForge article by Roger Smith as saying, “There can't be a social Web without ensuring that every user can effectively control the dissemination and use of their personal data. The social networking sites all agree to that -- they take great pains to let every user control their links. Now what we need is an open protocol for doing this everywhere, just like IP and the Web."
Alan T. Saracevic mentions push back from friends concerned about privacy in his article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Are these networks doomed to fail if people are hesitant about sharing personal information? This does not seem to be the case as these companies offering social networking software are flourishing, but who knows what the future holds.
Are you willing to join these networks to build up your contacts or are you fearful of the privacy risks? Share your thoughts.