It's no secret: Facebook's allure is its privacy

The social network site's success hinges on how it protects privacy, taming the anything-goes intrusiveness of what might as well be known as the World Wild Web.

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[techforward]

Concept of privacy is changing...

This is a great article. It highlights how our defination of privacy is evolving to include other concepts like anonymity, user tracking, users control of their private information, intrusiveness and receipt of unsolicited email.

There a strong argument that being online is a tacit approval for sharing one's personal information, but its probably not that black and white.

Facebook is staking out a brand position that may not guarantee privacy, but does allow users to control what information they provide and how its distributed. Facebook is using this to differentiate itself from other communities. There are other companies embracing some of the same concepts in other areas of the web - for example a company called Zimini operates in the digital advertising space and allows users to control how their personal information is used to target advertising, promotions, coupons and special offers.

What's really cool is that users have more choices - and the concept of privacy on the web is expanding.