Privacy--the delicate balance

Cyberfriends, I've been thinking about privacy from an optimistic and pessimistic perspective.  It's easy to see the problems with maintaining privacy online--identity theft, stalking, government surveillance, loss of control over what is private and what is public.  But then there is Dana Boyd who reminds us that there are many positive virtues of visibility--discovering new friends, seeing people whose behvior is different from yours (as a way of learning), exercising compassion and empathy with those who are hurting--all of  which she outlines in her article.  So it poses the question to me: how do  you balance the dangers and postive values of visibility?  What is the line we should draw between hiding ourselves online with letting people see us?  

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but here's a link to Time magazine online with an article on online relationships and a quote from me. 


http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2059521_2059716_2059709,00.html