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Life

Living online: The end of privacy?

By Alison George

13 September 2006

Cols likes a smoke and has tried many different drugs. He has three piercings and is in the process of tattooing his arm. He earns between $75,000 and $100,000 a year and doesn’t see his dad.

I know all about Cols even though I have never met him and probably never shall. Five years ago only a close friend of his would have known such personal details about him. Yet thanks to his profile on the social networking website MySpace, I even know the first thing he thinks about in the morning.

There’s nothing unusual about this. Millions of people share some of their…

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