The issue of how private you are on the web is, it seems to me, something that really isn't going to go away easily. I described here the other day <a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-28-at-09-00-51-tm.jpg2010/04/25/bye-bye-facebook/" target="_blank">how I quit Facebook</a> because I wasn't happy about its new privacy issues. They're difficult to understand, intrusive by default, and according to at least <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/facebook-users-risk-blackmail-privacy-czar-warns/article1545444/" target="_blank">one government official leave users open to blackmail</a>.

The Huffington Post picked up this story in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pam-atherton/who-told-facebook-they-co_b_551185.html" target="_blank">an excellent article by Pam Atherton</a>. Now it's had a very interesting sequel.

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I don't know a lot about Huffpost, except that it seems a pretty good source of news and opinion and is one of those new-model media that breaks fresh ground by, er, not paying many of its writers if I recall correctly. Fine by me if that's what people want to do.

<img class="alignright noborder" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-28-at-09-00-51-tm.jpg" alt="Screen shot 2010-04-28 at 09.00.51.png" width="250" height="587">And Pam's article, prompted by a tweet to my FB post, is very good, summing up the issue and bringing to a wider audience something that's little understood at large.

I wanted to comment on the article so I logged into Huffpost with my Twitter profile (I think -- it got a little confusing, I'll admit. All this logging in stuff does sometimes, don't you think?)

The principal reason I wanted to say something was because Facebook's David Swain had placed a comment so anodyne I could scarcely believe it, and went on to point out that Huffpost used some of FB's own technology too. My offering to David Swain was very simple -- when he can convince someone like Canada's privacy commissioner he's doing the right thing I'll go back to Facebook again. But I haven't had an answer yet.

Then today I thought I'd take a look at the Huffpost front page again. And what did I see but this, on the right?

MJ Rose is one of my oldest, dearest friends in this business. On the basis of my FB login Huffpost not only <em>knows</em> this but is happy to tell me what she's been reading.

Is this Huffpost using Facebook's oh-so-clever technology to make my life on the web more fun? Or something that's potentially rather scary? Something that will expose your web reading habits to others across the world without you even knowing?

Sounds like the latter to me. I will go back to Huffpost again. I am <em>not</em> logging in except when I have to, and then I'm logging out straight after.

In case you're wondering why it's this. What MJ or anyone else reads online is none of my damned business unless <span style="font-style:italic;">they</span> want to tell me. Not have some some faceless web media giant rat on them because it's sitting back watching us constantly as we go about our daily business.