Julia Angwin of the Wall Street Journal says that recent changes in Facebook’s privacy policy (which, net net, make it a lot less private) are prompting her to stop behaving as if Facebook is private at all. In her view, FB and Google are becoming more or less equally public fora:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126084637203791583.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEFifthNews

The future of antivirus is antivirus for your life.  Worms/viruses are now infecting social networks, impersonating users, and ruining their reputations.  See this article from Brad Stone at the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/technology/internet/14virus.html?hpw

Is it me or is the CAPTCHA on Google Maps getting much harder?  I can barely read the squiggly letters any more.

Google launched real-time search today.  It’s the latest update in what people are calling the “Now Web”– a term that was coined, if I’m not mistaken, by ReputationDefender (and Twitter) investor Mike Maples.  Real-time search has been something of a darling in the Valley over the past few months.  Check out this piece from Venturebeat from the summer.

Real-time search is a new and exciting presentation of data on the web.  The data isn’t different. It’s just streamed faster a la the Facebook or Twitter update.

The good news is that people might be able to track world news more swiftly.  Every femtosecond seems to count these days.  Of course, rumor will also spread faster.

This will no doubt also spawn a new practice and industry of dominating real-time search. Particularly since Google appears to be putting its search results at the top of its search page, there is strong incentive to bombard the web with the latest and greatest inputs from lots of sources, so that people click on your (read “the very latest–last minute–no, wait, less second–no, even more recent!) content.

How do you maintain a sense of privacy in a world where cars equipped with giant cameras cruise the streets taking candid photos? That’s a question many Canadians must now be asking themselves since Google Street View went live in numerous Canadian cities yesterday afternoon.

Google Street View, which has attracted criticism in the United States and elsewhere throughout the world, challenges our collective notion of privacy. Legally, a person standing on a public street does not have a reasonable expectation privacy. However, does that mean that they also have no say over whether or not their image is displayed to millions of Internet users worldwide?

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart, has been in the news frequently lately for her attempts to advance privacy efforts and hold websites more accountable for protecting users’ rights. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Stoddart was quick to warn Google that Street View was in potential conflict with Canada’s privacy laws. Her efforts prompted Google to institute new technology that blurs out faces and license plates. While this technology is not always effective, it is a significant step for Google and a sign that the company is willing to work with local governments on privacy issues.

The work that Jennifer Stoddart and other political leaders like her are doing is admirable, but government intervention alone will not solve our continually evolving privacy problems. Rather, there must be a concerted and combined effort between individuals, government entities, and private businesses. As we continue to celebrate National Cyber Security Awareness Month, we should all think of ways to make the Internet a safer and more useful place.