Big Brother is Watching (so what?)

In regards to internet privacy, I have to say my level of concern is likely lower than most.  Don't get me wrong, it's a little bit disturbing everything you can find out about a person by simply going online, but it is my philosophy that if you don't have anything to hide you shouldn't have anything to worry about.  I realize there are always exceptions to that, but I know that when I "check-in" on facebook i'm letting the world (or, at the very least, my some 300 facebook friends) know where I am at any given time.  

I like to think that I take steps to prevent people from seeing the things I don't want them to see.  I set my facebook to private, I don't post statuses about things I wouldn't say out loud, my address and phone number aren't prominently displayed (that's not to say you couldn't find them elsewhere, but hey--give me a call sometime, doesn't mean I have to answer.), and I don't post photos I wouldn't show my grandma (obviously--since we're facebook friends).  As far as my financial privacy goes, I make sure that the limited amount of online shopping I do is through a secure website and I always say "no" when it asks if I want it to save my information.  I know, I know, it's still out there, but sometimes you just have to have a little blind faith.  This is not to say I haven't been burned in the past, I've had my information stolen once or twice, but luckily I have fraud protection on all of my debit/credit cards.  For me, the rewards still outweigh the costs.  

What really concerns me about internet privacy is that while I am careful to take these steps to protect myself, I would say the vast majority of people don't even realize their information is at risk.  As for facebook, I had to do a lot of searching to find out how to set my profile to private, delete my phone number, and not allow certain applications to access my information.  Most facebook users are unaware that these things aren't automatic--they're just assuming that facebook has the users' best interest in mind when that is obviously not the case.  The same thing can be said about a lot of things on the internet--you probably don't realize that some places are selling your information to third parties (where do you think all that spam mail is coming from?).  The lack of knowledge about how to protect yourself rather than the monitoring itself is what I think the focus should be on.

All of this is not to say that I am okay with the government or any other entity monitoring my every move.  Yes, there should be regulations in place and yes, there are some things that should remain private.  However, as there is not enough time in the day to go into every aspect of internet privacy, I would again say that overall if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.