Privacy, privacy, privacy

Privacy in the news:

• New York Senator Schumer wants the FTC the come up with guidelines for social networking sites privacy settings after Facebook announced its plans to gather affinity data through its Open Graph Platform.
• Blippy, a social networking site focused on members sharing information about consumer purchases reveals it allowed 8 users full credit card information to be found through Google search.  They have worked hard to clean up the mess but the damage as been done.

Question: are the benefits of sharing information on the Internet so great that it outweighs these pesky privacy concerns?  After all for the speed and convenience of the automobile, we accept 40,000 auto death a year.