Duncan Work, an old pal of mine, has started a jeremiad for a set of privacy and security principles for social networking. He poses some interesting questions.

Duncan Work

[from PlaNetwork Journal -Call for A Social Networking Bill of Rights

The primary question posed by this paper is: What are those correct designs and policies? Many online systems don't get privacy policies right because of self-interest, or simply because privacy is not a high priority. For online retailers, protecting credit card information quickly became a high priority. But social networking systems are still fairly new, so while earning the trust of their users is being increasingly recognized as important, clear privacy standards are yet to emerge. What basic principles can social networking systems follow to best protect the rights of both users and non-users?

By the way, what exactly are the rights of users? The right to privacy is probably the most basic, but how should that be expressed, and what other related rights are also important?

And what about non-users? Should non-users have rights too? Most online privacy policies seem to speak exclusively about rights of users, without mentioning non-users. But in social networking systems, the rights of non-users can quickly become important, as well.

Duncan's answer is a "Bill of Rights" which is really a code of ethics that he suggests the services should abide by -- and by inference, those that do not should be avoided. Ok as far as that goes, although I am personally less concerned about privacy and security in the systems at the moment, and more focused on functionality and purpose. There needs to be more going on than the limited contact list-oriented networking the services are offering today.

Clay suggests that Duncan's screed is a bit self-serving for the purposes of LinkedIn, where he serves as chief scientist.

And oh, by the way, Duncan - it would be better if LinkedIn launched a blog to have this conversation in, instead of posting a "paper" at PlanetNetwork Journal, where people can't even make comments for crying out loud.