About a week ago on another thread I said (re Facebook):

It can't be long before we all get a message "Russell Brown has just rented 'An@l Midget Leather Fest' from Blockbuster - would you like to reserve your copy??"

It seems they have responded to my fears (okay, and those of 51,500 others) and reversed themselves:

Critics objected to what they viewed as a breach in privacy because users would have to formally decline to have the information displayed after making purchases at each participating web site. Most Facebook applications involve a pro-active “opt-in,” with users choosing to participate. MoveOn and the more than 51,500 members of its protest group wanted Facebook to make the Beacon feature “opt-in,” too, meaning that if a user took no action, their information would not be displayed.

And that’s what Facebook will do, the site announced this evening.

HuffPo also have a humorous-but-serious one about MySpace from Jim David

The first warning signal was when Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace in yet another attempt at world domination. Big Brother is not just watching, we're providing him the stuff to watch. I became instantly uneasy about one of the world's largest media empires knowing who my "friends" are, or dressed in drag at a Halloween party. Remember the scenes in classic thrillers where someone would get an anonymous letter or phone call saying, "We know who you are and we know who your friends are"? Now they DO ...

The straw that broke the MySpace back came when some maniac hacked into my profile and started sending out mass emails, as me, inviting people to some porn hook-up site. Aside from the embarrassment, I would have hoped that my real "friends' would realize that if I was inviting them to a porn site, the people would be a hell of a lot better looking.

I know that there's alot of functionality on FB and MyS that suit a lot of people. It is a great way to keep up with people you haven't seen for yonks. But crikey, the stuff some people put on their profiles - and BB is just round the corner. In about 20 years time some political hopefuls are going to have their ambitions squashed because of something they put on their page as a teen. (Yes, we all know the local example so I won't link).

Vetting potential dates might be an eye opener too ...