With both Google and Facebook having been responsible for multiple worrying privacy breaches over the years, and collecting ever more information about all of its users, it’s only natural to wonder what the end game of all this information collection might be.

The end game will depend on the morals, motives and plans of those collecting the information, and it’s hardly a stretch to imagine both totalitarian and very unfree societies alongside a socially networked paradise of freely sharable bliss and happiness, and everything in between.

Information is power, as they say, and while Google has done very well in its mission of “organising the world’s information”, Facebook has done an excellent job of organising more of each member’s personal information and personal networks.

With both Google and Facebook having grown so far and so fast, it’s almost surprising to look back and see Google’s litany of attempts in the social networking arena have largely flopped, but with its “try, try again” mentality, a mentality that makes me think of Yoda’s “there is no try, there is only do or not do”, it appears that Google has finally succeeded in developing the Facebook clone it was looking for, with a simpler and cleaner interface.

Part of this is because Google+ has no equivalent of Facebook Apps, as yet, and there are many who are very happy that this is currently the case, although a different tune may be sung once Google presumably introduces the capability, especially as it already has developers onside creating apps for the Android App Market and ChromeBook apps that also run through the Google Chrome desktop browser.

While Google+ has made life easier for those who want to more carefully sort their friends into different groups, which Google calls “circles”, Facebook fans protest that the Facebook Lists feature does the same thing, and that Facebook has already matched the Google+ video chat feature through its integration with Skype.

Indeed, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook and serial apologist for Facebook’s litany of privacy snafubars, has already declared “announcement season” is near, with plenty of new and exciting for Facebook’s users to come.

Both Google+ and Facebook will have to work hard to outcompete each other, and perhaps both companies will come up with a way to truly enhance privacy rather than keep on finding ways to slowly erode it, like the proverbial boiled frog that doesn’t know it is being slowly boiled – even though that actual story was reported to be false, with any frog in such a situation set to quickly jump out of the slowly warming water long before any permanent damage is done.

Frogs aren’t stupid, after all.

With Google and Facebook having made mea culpas over privacy breaches in the past, the only person you can trust to take absolute care of your privacy is you.

Google+ hasn’t faced any privacy scandals as yet, but if history proves any guide, they are inevitable.

The emergence of the Lists and Circles features of Facebook and Google+ respectively are natural evolutions of the world of social networking, because while people love to share, there’s sometimes also a need to share selectively.

That includes what you share on social networks in the first place, too.

Share as well as you want, but share wisely, because in the end, you are the beneficiary of Facebook’s and Google’s largesse, but you are also one of the products being sold.

There’s nothing wrong with this – it’s the tradeoff you make for receiving a free service. You just need to be aware of it, and aware of what the many and ongoing changes that social networking sites go through, including to privacy policies, and what they mean to you and your data – or you might just find that Google+ Facebook really does have twice the privacy bleaching power!

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