Using SelfServe, American Express, for example, might aim ads at users that MySpace has identified as having a pulse and mercilessly beat them into submission with credit card offers. The site has created more than 100 user-interest categories already and hopes to have 300 by the end of the year. “We’re looking at everything people put into their profiles and what their friends are into,” Arnie Gullov-Singh, a Fox Interactive vice president, told the Los Angeles Times.

And so the evolution of behavioral targeting begins. “It changes everything,” said Michael Barrett, chief revenue officer at Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp. unit that includes MySpace. “Every form of targeting has been trying to get to what that individual is thinking about, passionate about and interested in. It defines the next generation of targeting.”

• 72% of respondents divulged one or more email address
• 84% listed their full date of birth
• 87% provided details about their education or workplace
• 78% listed their current address or location
• 23% listed their current phone number
• 26% provided their instant-messaging screen name

Yikes. You’d think institutional privacy concerns would be enough to make folks think twice about expanding their Facebook networks with reckless gusto, wouldn’t you? Guess not.

“It certainly doesn’t bode well when you’re talking about privacy concerns,” Ron O’Brien, a senior security analyst at Sophos, told InformationWeek. “The information they’re offering up could be just as valuable as credit card information for someone trying to build a profile of you. People need to be more selective about whom they provide information to. … Collecting ‘friends’ is encouraged by social-networking and business-networking sites,” he added. “It’s a status thing to see how many friends or contacts you can rack up. … This was intended to demonstrate to the average user that they need to exercise a lot of caution. The Web is a doorway and it shouldn’t be constantly open.”