Column: Leave social networks at home

Linda Musthaler's column in NetworkWorldFusion discusses the privacy aspects of social network software such as friendster, plaxo and the like:

Leave social networks at home:

"Attention friends and acquaintances: Please stop sending me invitations to join your electronic social networks. I know Plaxo, Friendster, Tickle and other networking tools help you remember my address and phone number, but I'd prefer you hand-write them in your little black book. At least the data will belong to you alone and won't be shared with the world.

It seems not a week passes that I don't get an invitation to join one of these social networks. So, being the skeptic that I am, I did a bit of research about them. What I found scared the heck out of me, and it's enough to give a corporate privacy officer heart palpitations. ..."