Right on the funny bone

Give social networks fake details, advises Whitehall web security official

A senior government official has sparked anger by advising internet users to give fake details to websites to protect their security. Andy Smith, an internet security chief at the Cabinet Office, said people should only give accurate details to trusted sites such as government ones. He said names and addresses posted on social networking sites "can be used against you" by criminals.

Trusted sites such as government ones? Sure, governments would never harvest data from social networks for their own purposes, use it against citizens as criminals would or think of it as just another tool to help quell dissent. And one of the best incentives to provide the government with real data? They will never lose your personal information or make the contents available to third parties.