Write-Place

"I could write a biography about me. But all the things I 'liked' and all the groups I joined already told my story " Someone just sent me this from a website called "Likelicious", where people post a little piece about what they like (hence the name ) The posts are anonymous. Made me think that yes, that could almost be me yet I do enjoy this "networking " game, time wasting/consuming though it is. I am a talker - whether verbally or written (though on a bad day I am more comprehensible when writing than talking and on a really bad day I am just completely incomprehensible!) I am the person who you tell your life story to during twenty minutes in the doctors waiting room - and you will hear a good bit about mine too, though we will probably never meet again. Good or bad for me ? Good or bad for you ? Where do you fit onto this scale of public v private ?

This is very hastily put together, so I apologise now for any errors, omissions or panic style writing. I write in haste. I have heard today that The Home Office is considering plans to force “social networking sites” such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo to hold information about their users in an effort to foil the criminals/terrorists who communicate through them. All the information would be stored on a central database (and yes, possibly a few cds which get mislaid on trains, buses etc) as part of the proposed Intercept Modernisation Programme. These plans are to keep information about all telephone calls, emails, and internet visits made by everyone in Britain through a multi-billion pound system. Every picture we look at, every piece of music we listen to and every person we have emailed will be “on file”. The Data Retention Directive, a European Union statutory order already proposes that internet service providers in member states store communications for one year. Now I do not ...