Should government take the initiative to protect online privacy?

Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, recently gave warning that people are leaving large amounts of information about themselves on the internet without fully understanding the implications of their actions. The launch of services such as Facebook's Places initiative, which allows users to identify their location when uploading content to the web, has intensified calls for more to be done to protect online privacy, as has Google's StreetView fiasco. One response to all this is to lobby companies such as Facebook and Google to provide stronger protections for users, and to step up the online industry's efforts to educate folk about the consequences of "over-sharing".

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