ISPs, social networking, and privacy
I don't know why I'm coming across more about privacy in my web browsing lately, but today I've seen what Microsoft will reveal to police about you and what Facebook and Comcast will tell the police about you. Nothing there was surprising. You've (long should have) known that you should have no expectation of privacy with work email or web browsing. You shouldn't have much of an expectation of privacy at home either, if "the authorities" are interested in you for some reason. ISPs will fork over your IP logs (revealing every website you've visited) and your email (received and sent); web services will give up connection logs; social-networking sites will reveal your networks and photos; and they'll all provide your profile data. If your ISP is also your phone provider, that's another set of connection records. (The traditional phone companies would give up the same info, but if you're of only casual interest maybe they won't take the trouble to file for that additional subpoena they'd need if your ISP isn't your phone provider.) If Big Brother is really interested in you, your ISP may be tasked to archive every bit in and out of your home - webpages, downloads, email; VOIP?
So if you've got anything to hide, don't put it on line. (And don't let your friends e-chat about it either.) Even if you're not being naughty, I'd expect you could become a person-of-interest by simply having some (possibly innocent) contact with a person-of-interest - email, phone, or a social-network link.
Encrypted email and secure anonymizing web proxies sure sound appealing.... (Of course, if your "authorities" are paranoid, obfuscating your activity may just increase their curiosity.) Maybe you should surf from a varying (open) hotspots, with differing laptops (or altered MAC addresses).Just heard on the radio the suggestion that your insurance company may hold you liable for posting information about your whereabouts that invites a burglary when you're away from home.[2010/Mar/04] One more: What MySpace will tell the police about you. In response to a court order or subpoena, "MySpace will turn over ... IP logs, private messages ... sent and received, private journals and blogs, private information ... supplied ... during registration, and so on." Much the same as the others.
I just took a glance at www.cryptome.org (the source referenced from the other links). They've got info on AOL, Cisco, Comcast, Cox Communications, Earthlink, Facebook, Microsoft, MySpace, Network Solutions, Ning, PayPal, Skype, Stickam, Time-Warner, and myYearbook on the home page.