Privacy with social networks and websites has become more and more complicated, confusing, and so dissimilar from one website to anothat I don't think any user of the internet (including myself) can make heads or tails of what the various privacy policies mean, how often they change, and what it means to you. Fortunately, most websites don't take enough personal data for anyone to really care.  But Social Networks take a lot of personal data....pictures, family relationships, addresses, contact info, phone numbers....and more.  Fortunately, someone over at the Univeristy of Cambridge decided to weed through the proverbial jungle and doa  bit of an analysis......its a good read, and highly recommended.

The paper is titled “The Privacy Jungle: On the Market for Data Protection in Social Networks” by Joseph Bonneau and Sören Preibusch.The University of Cambridge researchers conducted a thorough analysis of the privacy practices and policies in online social networks, revealing some interesting results regarding how social networking sites differentiate (or not) themselves in the “privacy marketplace.” (Technology Review has a good summary of the research, and some of its implications).

Check it out, and if you really like it and have something interesting to say about it...let me know!