Do me a favor. Look at the address bar of your browser. Does it end in “like-button-disclaimer”? If so, scroll to the bottom of this post. (Go ahead, I’ll wait here.) If not, click the title of this post, and then scroll to the bottom of the page that you’re brought to.

What you’re looking for is the Facebook “Like” button. It might not look like much, but it’s a craze that’s sweeping the nation. Here’s what happens when you click it.

First and foremost, if you’re one of the first people to “like” a post, you’ll get your name and a link to your facebook profile right on that page. (After the first few, it’ll just tell you how many people like it.)

Then you’ll get a little entry in the Recent Activity tab on your Wall that says, “[Your name] likes [the name of the post]” with a link to the post you liked. All of your friends will be able to see it.

So far so good, right? It doesn’t seem much different than Digging an article, for example. It’s just like “liking” anything else on Facebook — only you can do it all over the internet.

And there’s the rub. See, while you’re flying around the internet liking things left and right, Facebook is collecting data about the kinds of sites you’re visiting. Now, ostensibly Facebook will use this data for relatively innocuous purposes — like helping advertisers more accurately target your profile. But in certain situations Facebook will be able to make your user data available to others. Not all of your data, mind you — just the stuff you make publicly viewable. That includes your name, your city or town, and whatever else you choose to share with the general public.

But lots of people aren’t comfortable with Facebook sharing their personal information with others, even if it’s already publicly accessible. For those people, I recommend not clicking the Like buttons on this site — or any other site for that matter. If you’d still like to express your appreciation for this blog , then by all means let me know what you think in the comment section at the bottom of each post.

For the Record:

• I am not interested, nor will I ever be interested in collecting the Facebook user data of people who visit this site. I’m more interested in having a conversation than I am in figuring out the average age of people in Toledo who visit this site. Who cares? Let’s talk.
• I believe that making the Web more inherently social is a very good thing. I believe that the easier it is to spread ideas among people, the stronger our ideas become. I believe that things as mundane as conversations among friends are all part of a larger dialogue, and the open publication of this dialogue in its entirety makes ideas more significant.
• If you ever have any questions about the security of your data on this site, please let me know. I’m very happy to discuss any concerns you might have in an open, honest and public fashion. That’s why I wrote this post, after all.
• Click the Like button!