In shoppers' online networks, privacy has no price tag

On the newest social networking Web sites, you are what you buy:

ilona spent $6.41 at Chipotle.

AshleyMarie got 1 song from iTunes for $1.29 ("Can't Be Tamed" by Miley Cyrus).

suchitagarwal spent $464.44 at Sta Travel Inc. ("Eurail Global Pass for 15 days!").

So read recent updates on Blippy, a sort of Twitter for shopping that allows users to automatically broadcast what they bought using credit and debit cards to the rest of the world.

The founders of the network and rival site Swipely say the purpose is to reveal the stories behind America's stuff and explore how much our purchases reflect our personalities. Are we Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts, Target or Wal-Mart, Payless or Prada?

"Part of it, for a lot of people, is simply: 'I shop; therefore I am,' " said Paco Underhill, a consumer researcher and author of the books "What Women Want" and "Why We Buy." "The ability to consume is part of what their identities are based on."

But privacy advocates say that users are divulging a dangerous level of personal financial information -- Blippy has reported one security breach -- and that the sites could become a gold mine for marketers seeking detailed data on potential customers.

A Social Network to Grow On

Right this second, parents around the country are arguing with their children about using the computer—in particular, whether they're old enough to start accessing social-networking sites like Facebook. Parents worry about how kids behave with each other online and if they're interacting with strangers. A new site being launched Wednesday aims to ease those worries by providing training wheels to young kids looking to social network.

Togetherville (Togetherville.com) is designed to function as a safe, kid-centric social network. The site guides kids ages 6 through 10 on how to communicate online with others, using canned responses and parental participation. Togetherville links into Facebook so parents who use the popular social-networking site can have a say in who their children are connecting with and can even interact with their kids online.

While there are many kid-friendly sites like Disney's Club Penguin that have a social-networking aspect, Togetherville offers young children their first taste of social networking like grown-ups, using their real-life identities (not cute avatars) and real-life relationships.

'Facebook' for kids keeps parents in the loop

Kids under 13 aren't allowed on Facebook, but that hasn't stopped many of them from joining.

Togetherville, a social networking site for kids ages 6 to 10, hopes to lure them into a more age-appropriate setting. The site, whose founder has three children under 10, launched Tuesday night.

It's free to join, and kids' accounts must be created by their parents using their own Facebook logins. Parents can approve or reject their children's friends and see what types of activities or games their kids are up to.

"The adults participate directly," said CEO and co-founder Mandeep Dhillon, whose kids are 8, 5 and 2. "Which is why this is not a digital babysitter."

Kids have separate logins to Togetherville, and the site looks different depending on whether a parent or a child is logged in. For kids, there are games, pre-screened YouTube videos and other activities, such as educational applications, but no advertisements.

There are even Facebook-style status updates, called "quips," with a twist: kids choose from a preselected menu of updates, which change daily. Dhillon says that's because when given a blank space to type in, kids tend to either write gibberish or get stumped by what to say. But if they want to, they can send in their own "quips" for approval.

Parents can send their kids virtual gifts, review their activities on the site or look at virtual art they've created. Togetherville plans to make money by selling virtual goodies for its games.

The site taps into a growing trend of tech-savvy parents interacting with their kids online. Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Washington DC-based nonprofit Family Online Safety Institute, said he hopes Togetherville will get parents to remove their young children from Facebook, calling it a "much safer environment."

Though they are prohibited by the sites from joining, many of kids under 13 are already on MySpace and Facebook. They lie about their age, or get their parents to do so, Balkam said.

Is it creepy that Amazon is tracking
most-highlighted Kindle passages?

Tracking bestselling books tells us about the reading habits, or at least buying habits, of the American public. But is there anything we can learn from tracking what information people consider important in those books?

Business management website Bnet worried  that publishing such information could erode consumer trust. Amazon notes on its website that it doesn’t show which customers made the highlights.

I do find the idea that such information is being tracked post-purchase a little odd, almost as if the supermarkets tracking my food-buying habits were also measuring whether I made omelets or scrambles once I got my eggs home. But I also admit to being curious about just what the information means. In my life, highlighting was restricted to academics, useful mainly for biology notes. It wouldn’t have occurred to me to underline a passage from a novel or a general-interest read.

Blippy & Swipely Push The Boundaries Of
Social Networking Privacy

With a $7.5 million round of funding, co-founder Angus Davis underscores the central premise of Swipely as "adding value to every swipe."  In essence, this means that with every swipe of a credit card you make - that information becomes most useful to your friends and followers. Swipely is not about how much you're spending (dollar amounts are not tabulated) but instead about where you're spending the money and what you're buying.

Swipely works on the premise that if users know people who bought certain merchandise and can vouch for it, they are more likely to purchase those items themselves.  This 'wisdom of crowds' perspective also works with negative reviews and products users are warned to avoid.