Privacy and Web 2.0 technologies

A stimulating post on Web 2.0 and the "end of privacy?" from from Tim Neuman at the Institute of Education inspired by a German article ("Die dunkle Seite des Web 2.0") published on 8th Feb 2006. This is an issue of growing concern to some of us in educational establishments where students do not yet realise the full implications of the persistence of personal data that is being divulged in blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies (such as photo sharing sites like Fickr). It may not yet be standard practise to "Google" prospective employees (I would love to know if there have been any studies that have looked at this) but it is clearly possible to trace personal (non professional) commentaries, viewpoints and persuasions through and across a variety of personal publishing spaces - writings that may not be consonant with, or may even directly hamper personal career goals (disciplinary action being bought against Bloggers at their place of work perhaps being the most high profile examples). It also raises the question of how we manage or even shape our online identities cf. recent stories on spin doctoring wiki entries by US senate staff. Will there be third party tools appearing to manage and monitor our online selves, the tracks and traces we leave across cyberspace.