There was an interesting post on TechCrunch recently on how the default privacy settings on the web seem to have migrated from “private” (like Facebook’s old privacy rules, which were very strict) to “public” (a la Twitter, where your content is open by default).

Working in a position like mine, where I get to see a lot of the ins and outs of how people use and expect social networks to behave, it is astounding to see some of the complete misunderstandings that happen regarding where user’s data can go.

I’d like to take a quick look at how these privacy rules have changed, and why I’m certain most people don’t understand what their data can actually be used for.

Recently I was asked to take part in a new venture of the This Is Me project at the University of Reading. Following the recent extended beta of Google Wave, it was thought that it would be a really good idea to collaboratively work on some of the project inside Wave itself.

I thought it would be a great way to further investigate the possible applications of Google Wave. Cynics of the application have cited that there seems no real uses for it at the moment, and that while Google have created a very cool tool, no-one seems to think they can use it for anything that’s not covered by software that already exists.

Here’s why I think they’re wrong, and why Google Wave has so much potential.