Thanks for the very insightful comment – the conversation on user data privacy has been very interesting to follow and I'm glad to see there are some other Austin-ites who are equally interested in this topic.

I've been tooling around with a follow up post to continue this conversation. Specifically, I'd like to do exactly what you mentioned and speak with the people writing the TOS, providing the user data to developers, or even the individuals going after data from the likes of Facebook and other “closed” social networks through a data black market. Marshall Kirckpatrick from RWW wrote a really great article covering a lot of these areas, which I highly recommend reading http://bit.ly/9vxCxF [Disclosure: 80legs is a client of Jones-Dilworth, Inc whom I also work for].

I was very glad to see Dana's comments at SxSWi; personally, having just finished Jaron Lanier's most recent book, I was much more moved by his words, which I posted about in March: http://bit.ly/bXrFlB. As he describes, there are serious consequences to many of the systems and choices we have made (and are making) in the transition to the web 2.0, social media, open source, mobile/interactive age upon us.

And this area of privacy should deservedly get a lot of attention, because the stakes are growing, individually and collectively. Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, is on stage today in DC at the federal IRMCO where, among other things, he reported that the oldest members of the Net Generation (gen y, millenials, whatever) are 31 this year. That means they are increasingly getting to a point where they have much more value at risk in the way of family, job, personal wealth, relationships, etc.

This “debate” is an important one and I'm glad to see the attention you gave it. In the spirit of Austin Startup, I'd love to hear some comments (or have you do a follow-up note) that highlights what some of the other cutting edge CTOs, start-up execs are doing for their ToS, privacy policy, data mgmt infrastructure, etc.