Other people have been emitting a lot of criticism of Orkut and its brethren; many on the basis of it making explicit what is more properly implicit, but Mark criticizes them (probably rightly) for their privacy policy, and Roger Clarke in Very Black 'Little Black Books' makes explicit many of the potential problems that this sort of service can pose. Mark, I think, is being too cynical; most of what I've typed into these things isn't very hard to dig up, but he does raise a valid point. Also, he said the following, which seemed like it was worth repeating:
"We use industry standard security measures to protect your information so that it is not made available to unauthorized parties."My first thought: "industry standard" these days means "MyDoom.A is fighting with Seti@home for cycles".
On the other hand, thanks to Orkut, I am now back in contact with a couple of former coworker/friends who turn out to have blogs. This is actually way cool. I may have to give it a little credit for being useful.
I leave you with this random neuron firing: Justice, Freedom, and the Pursuit of Happiness do not go skipping together hand in hand down the yellow brick road of life; rather they are nervous associates, sometimes sharing goals, but often in opposition.
