Privacy online is the same kind of oxymoron as "jumbo shrimp," meaning you should take the phrase with a grain of salt. The recent Miss America flap is a perfect illustration of the perils of taking online privacy for granted. Miss America had marked some photos on her Facebook page "private," but some people were able to access them anyway. The embarrassing pictures almost caused her to lose her crown.
As these problems come to light, we are finding out that there a lot of people, young and old, who are not taking the time to understand the implications of "being online," especially when it comes to "free" services. I am astounded regularly when I see businesses using free services for everything from email to word processing. They are happily putting company secrets, business contacts, and produce information in the hands of a third party that the business cannot and does not control.
Economic developers: Your local businesses still need a lot of help sorting out these issues, and it is in the best interest of the health of the local economy that businesses are blindsided by relying too heavily on online services that appear to be "free." It is still true: There is no such thing as a free lunch.