Did you ever remember publishing your home address online? Was it with Twitter or Facebook? Well, if you did not, that’s good for you! And better bear in mind not to – ever! If you did, then it’s time to polish your Facebook profile information. You would be asking why the fuss. Read on and maybe you would really say to yourself that some personal info is still worth keeping.

It is understandable that online users often casually give out their home address. There’s no problem with it with friends whom you want to be close with. However, if your home address is opened to millions of other online users, there is the problem. Privacy problems may be worse than what you would expect.

Just recently, information was gathered that Facebook shows its users’ home address to developers. Jeff Bowen in one of his posts wrote that Facebook makes these data available in the development platform. Actually, it is not only the users’ addresses but also their mobile phone numbers.

There is a growing public interest in the issue over internet privacy. In no other time has there been like today’s heated debates over it. In the past, privacy laws were there, and were applicable during that era. Then technology became more sophisticated but at the same time user-friendly. This gave rise to internet companies that collect user’s data to build their own marketing niche.

Here comes the privacy issue. Users became open to providing their personal information to these companies. Unknowingly, they are also opening their “doors” to intruders. Using their own supplied information, users are being tracked by companies that thrive on data marketing. Some of these marketers could abuse and take advantage of using this to push their own purpose.

Adding complexity to the issue on privacy is the fact that existing privacy laws are already outdated. Information technology has grown very rapidly, but privacy laws have remained dormant and hence obsolete. Users’ privacy could no longer be fully covered. It is very easy for an interested party to gain access to personal data or behavior of online users. Companies that have possession of these data cannot simply say “no” whenever they are called to turn these over to authorities. This is because existing privacy laws “allow” such access to records.

One thing that many internet users ignore to give due consideration is personal information that they share online. For whatever reasons, it seems that information sharing has become very common and natural. Online users do not sense any damaging consequence that could come along with such data sharing. Too much personal information have been freely uploaded that privacy laws have to be improved. This is because many companies are taking interest on these data to be used for their own gains.

Social networking is one site where people could plainly give out their personal information. Facebook for instance has about 500 million users around the globe. This number of users has at least their basic private information open to practically anyone else online. All these data are in the custody of the networking business. These same data are what the government trying to defend in line with privacy laws.

As mentioned before, many internet users have become very careless in uploading information. With technology on the go, the government desires to put added control over data selling. Many government officials support the planned enhancement of privacy rights protection.

On the other hand, Facebook also has taken the test to redesign its strategies in the US. It has accepted the stand of the government leaning towards a stricter discharge of privacy laws. For this, the company has taken a stride ahead of the rest of its counterparts like Twitter, Zynga and LinkedIn.

The Internet has firmly taken root in America and now is involved and vital in every aspect of life. For the first time ever, there is a medium at which organizations can build a career base and reach their clientele at minimum cost. People can connect over chatting, whether it be text or actually web cam directed, and interact and have fun online. People’s social lives now exist predominately on the Internet, though MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. The Internet isn’t all good however, and this is easily recognizable. It is safe to say though the biggest wound it has inflicted is the one on people’s individual privacy.

People post to much stuff on the Internet, and it never deletes itself. Although sites rarely ever clean out their servers, even if they did, you can guarantee your information is already posted to another site. And you can be sure from there that somebody stored it on their computer and emailed it to a bunch of their friends and co-workers; a vicious cycle. Suddenly your embarrassing photo or online rant about something has made you the laughing stock of your community and future employers will hold this over your head. Employers now often do a quick Google search of their applicant’s names, to see if they have a social networking site account. Colleges do this also; they want to make sure they are hiring some complete slacker who has all sorts of incriminating stuff on his page.