• D: All Things Digital , Tuesday, February 17, 2009 11:45 AM

In response to Mark Zuckerberg's privacy memo to Facebook users, BoomTown writer Kara Swisher borrows an infamous line from former Sun Chief Scott McNealy: "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." Yep, and "that goes double on social networks," she adds.

The uproar over Facebook's latest changes to its Terms of Service drew a lengthy and thoughtful response from Zuckerberg, but it "pretty much states the obvious again," Swisher says. For example, Facebook archives all the information you post, so even if you quit the service, you won't be able to delete anything you've shared. "Once you send something to others, it is out there in cyberspace forever, never ever to return.

"And that goes double on social networking sites," Swisher adds, "where--let's be honest-people egregiously overshare and then get all righteous when it is explained to them that sharing means, um, sharing." In other words, even though Facebook has been less than clear about its stance on user data and privacy, the social networking giant is technically right on this issue--users are just going to have to trust services like Facebook with their data, once they agree to share it.

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