I've seen it happen quite a few times: You posted something with sensitive material somewhere "securely" on the Internet. Maybe you had it password protected. Maybe you had it "friends only." Maybe you just put whatever it was in an obscure location, assuming nobody would find it there.

Perhaps you posted a picture or video from that one crazy time you had. Maybe you just blogged something more intimate than is appropriate for the unfiltered audience that the Internet provides.

It doesn't matter what you did to keep this data staying in your "friends only" circle. It will go beyond that. It always does. It's the Internet. It's the most public of all media.

I've seen people cry when one of their "private" blogs was accessed by unwanted parties. I've seen pictures used by people in inappropriate ways. I can hear the whining now. "But that was friends only! He wasn't supposed to see that!" Tough cookies. Friends share things with other people, including data. It's as easy as "right-click, save picture as," or "select all, copy-paste." Or, even, "Hey, guys, come see what so-and-so posted!"

The bottom line is, don't expect your friends only MySpace account to stay that way, or the livejournal that you use to post your intimate thoughts to be seen only by those who have your best interests in mind.

If you want something kept private, the Internet is not the place for that. In fact, it's the least private place for sensitive data. That's what a hard drive is for, or even offline storage such as jump drives, CD-ROM's, and old-school floppies.

If you want the attention, fine. But don't bother going through the motions of privatizing your media. Assume everything you put on the Internet will be seen by your worst enemies, and post accordingly. And, quit whining when your overexposure comes back to get you.