Privacy has always been a concern on the World Wide Web, but new findings show that personal information may be even more vulnerable than previously thought. A piece by Steve Lohr in the New York Times' Technology section cites several recent studies and projects about just how protected your protected information really is.
Lohr points out ways that information shared in diffuse areas of the Web can be combined to find out more about a person than he or she intended to reveal. Thanks to data mining, everything from sexual preferences to social security numbers can become public knowledge. In the piece, CSAIL's Harold Abelson explains that "in today’s online world, what your mother told you is true, only more so: people really can judge you by your friends."
Read the full article here.