If you've been drinking the "we don't care about privacy" Kool-aid over at Facebook lately, then you probably aren't concerned about anyone who might piece together your habits, patterns, and foibles using your easily collected data-bits. Of course we're talking about all of those seemingly disjointed items such as your location, birthday, friends, hobbies, interests, political affiliations, romantic relationships, likes, dislikes, and so forth. In fact, you may agree that 'privacy is dead' ...or at the very least, sooo last century. To that we say,

Spoken like a person who has never suffered the pains of having:

• Their house burglarized while they were gone.
• Their identity stolen and paying thousands to restore their credit.
• Been character assassinated by someone using a photo or tweet 'out of context' to blow one of your small personality flaws out of proportion, ready to be presented on demand to the entire world. Forever.
• Been denied a job or promotion or admission into the college of your choice based on who your friends are (but, that's right, you wouldn't know it because it's illegal to do so which means "they" simply wouldn't tell you the real reason why).
• Lost a chance to date the boy or girl you've been waiting for because they found something 'negative' about you on Google.
• Been turned down for a loan or insurance based on information about you (accurate or not) buried deep in one or more of your credit or purchasing profiles.

Okay - now it makes sense. You don't care about privacy because you're ignorant about all of the bad things that can happen when someone uses your 'new age transparency' against you for their gain at YOUR expense.

Now we understand. It's because you are ignorant (or stupid) ...excuse us while we choose not to participate in the "new" privacy paradigm of the 21st century. Those of us who are old enough to know better, we ...uh... know better. It's just that simple. In fact, let us count the ways!

1. We know that identity theft can be as serious as a heart attack. In fact, it's entirely possible that the stress of spending a year or so and tens of thousands of dollars to recoup one's identity might give you one.
2. We know that burglars like to work when we are away from our homes. So we're smart enough to avoid posting on our Facebook page or tweeting that we are vacationing in Cancun or even stepping out to walk to the coffee shop. Check out this clever site that spot lights how vulnerable people are making themselves, PleaseRobMe.com.
3. We're smart enough to realize that the party last Friday was fun but only to those who were actually there to keep everything in context. That exaggerated photo of ourselves "looking like" were doing something illegal or obscene will not translate well to the college counselor, or the prosecuting attorney, or the hiring manager after we've posted it online and it's been copied and propagated by some of our "friends".
4. We know from experience that people believe 'birds of a feather flock together' ...our Facebook "friend" passed out in the bushes isn't an asset to our character. Others who see the "flaw" in our judgement will simply not tell us why they didn't hire us or admit us or date us. We already know this.
5. And we know that credit and profile reporting agencies attempt to compile anything and everything about us even when it's junk-information. That's because they are in the business of attaching data-bits to people with little regard to truth. So when I look on, say Spokeo for example, my 78 year old mother is delighted to learn she's 'in her 50's' but upset to know that my telephone number is actually assigned to an address located 200 miles away from where I told her I live.
   
   But, she and I both know that, in general, only about 50% of what is reported is actually true. That's why neither of us are willing to give "them" any more "stuff" about us to screw up for their profit at our expense.
6. And, we're not surprised to see that Consumer Reports noted that '52 Percent of Social Network Users Post Risky Information.' We know that the majority is NOT always right but we understand that they haven't yet had any of the bad things noted above to happen to them, yet. That's why they're seduced into believing the apparently new '21st Century privacy paradigm' that marketers like the facebook people are selling. As W.C. Fields is credited with saying,...'there's a sucker born every minute' and apparently a lot of them like the Kool-aid being served over at facebook.'

So, now it makes sense. It's because you're too young, too ignorant, or too stupid to know any better. We get it. But before we join you for a drink, we'd like to give this topic about 10 years to settle. Come back then and we'll talk about how things worked out for you if you really believe Facebook and others have your best interests in mind. We can hardly wait to see how all that works out for you.

P.S. Apparently we aren't the only people who are concerned. Take a look at: Top Ten Reasons You Should Quit Facebook