Story: Thinktank: Debate ID cards or drop them
Good point
The smartest thing that Facebook does is not in fact asking you for information about yourself. It asks other people (your friends) for information about - such as when and how you met etc. This is arguably more valuable in the long run that our browsing habits, and possibly as valuable in some respects as the content of our emails, for purposes of targetting ads.
We've been distilling the dynamics of these mechanisms lately as we develop ZDNet's nascient community/social networking features. Privacy is always foremost in our minds - particularly how to give users control over the information they do supply. From what I have seen, I believe that the likes of Facebook also spend a lot of time considering privacy - not least because any breach or gaffe tends to be immediately picked up by the community, and the site has to have a satisfactory response, which usually entails bending to the will of the community. After all, if people are not satisfied, they can always go elsewhere.
Unfortunately the (or indeed any) proposed ID card scheme has such automatic, natural checks and balances built in
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