If you look at recent events such as identify theft hacking, and even the general acceptance of people in general, privacy is becoming a thing of the past. My sister and cousin took a family argument into facebook, kids tweet about everything even stuff most adults would consider personal. Older people have ideas like posting pictures of kids online could attract predators, younger parents find it cute. Add in the government pushing to make things safe for freedom and the American way.
A few decades ago, you could steal someones identity and they would never know it, in fact, it rarely had any affect on their life. Now lenders collect tons of once private data to decide if they should give you a loan. In fact what we once thought as private is now considered common knowledge. In an attempt to protect themselves, they altered the way they do things.
Kids have no thought of posting themselves being "stupid" on you tube, things that 50 years ago, or even 20 years ago, would have considered embarrassing. The upside is the human race is embracing differences, from religion to the way we act. The downside is we are loosing freedoms, privacy. In the middle you have a huge growing pain as we discover how to deal with new technology flying at us so rapidly, few can keep up with it.
I believe the future will find a balance, where we are being watched, but groups like RIAA will become a thing of the past, freedom of information will come into reality as the costs to combat it will become to vast, coupled with the low costs to self publish bringing third party companies to rethink their ways. On the flip side, someone crying over a rainbow can become just as famous as someone singing a really great song.
