The biggest problem with all of this, and which I'm surprised no one else has mentioned, is that my Address Book isn't principally "personal data about me, which I wish to keep safe." It is "personal data about other, often more important people, who have entrusted me with the security of that data"!
If you pull my CEO's private contact info off my phone, or pull a high-level contact from some company we've been privately looking to acquire, you best pray that theft doesn't result in a leak of privileged business information.
Excellent point that most people have missed (I've actually brought it up in a few threads now). They are taking data that others have entrusted you with which is the worst part of this. If there servers were compromised not only would my data be stolen but the data of all my friends, family, and colleagues.
Who I keep in my phonebook is absolutely about me – it is also about other people and perhaps there's increased risk for them, but who I keep in my address book is still personal and private information.
My social/business network, particularly as contained in my address book is absolutely private data and it should be my choice whether or not it's shared.
> or pull a high-level contact from some company we've been privately looking to acquire, you best pray that theft doesn't result in a leak of privileged business information.
Right, because the presence of some contacts at company B immediately implies "oh, we're going to acquire them."
What people really aren't mentioning is that people give out the information likely stored in your address book to pretty much any service that even looks to be interesting based on a screencast, or even a splash page. Do you read the terms of service and privacy policies of all random websites you sign up for? Do the people whose contact information you are protecting do so?
> It is possible that the internet has gotten so public that we should all just stop worrying about privacy.
It's notable that the core of Facebook's pitch, to users as well as investors, is "we should all just stop worrying about privacy", or perhaps "everyone you know has stopped worrying about privacy, so you should too."
So rather than a radical view, it's actually become an authoritative statement driving the fact that "the internet has gotten so public"! An elegant hack, really.
If you pull my CEO's private contact info off my phone, or pull a high-level contact from some company we've been privately looking to acquire, you best pray that theft doesn't result in a leak of privileged business information.