There are a few issues with the "I have very little to hide" attitude. One problem is that the information you provide may not be what you want to hide, but the information that could be inferred from it may be problematic for you.

For instance, what if some financial institution computes a credit score based on the profiles of the people you are connected with and makes you pay more for a loan because you have some friends with a bad credit rating?

What if health insurance providers sift through your data to find out about your lifestyle and adjust rates accordingly?

What if a potential employer or their HR service provider computes some kind of loyalty/reliability/risk score based on lifestyle data you provide?

What if none of that is possible based on your current facebook data but when facebook gets acquired in the future their datasets are combined with other data about you?

All of the conclusions drawn from such analyses may be completely wrong. But they are nonetheless information about you and they may have an effect on your life. Was that the kind of information you were thinking of when you said "I have very little to hide"?

Good point, though I have one argument: if the insurance and healthcare companies are adjusting rates by online identity, and they are doing so legally, then they'll just charge a higher rate for someone they can't 'infer' due to lack of a descriptive online identity. Scary thing is these sorts of inferred decisions may be considered morally OK by some :(

I don't see how you would have an expectation of that data being private when you put it on facebook. The whole point of facebook is to publish your identity, and you are a fool if you think somehow what you post to your friends will never get around.

And how does what happens to your data after an acquisition have anything to do with their current privacy policies? If that's you worry, there is nothing they could do - it's your choice to put data there.

He wasn't talking about Facebook at all. He merely questioned the "I have little to hide" line of thinking. Also, if you sincerely think that privacy is dead, I suggest you see this video: http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2010/feb/01/freedom-clou... Pay particular attention to the points you may disagree with, and why.

I believe that you are violating Facebook's ToS if you use a pseudonym. Just sayin'.

(As though a name our parents give us is more "real" than one of our own choosing. There is no such thing as identity.)