I often find myself experiencing something in real life -- good or bad -- and immediately want to share it on my networks. I take out my iPhone and instantly share it with my networks. Depending on which "app" I open, I could share it with 720 people (many of whom I've never met), 350 people (many of whom I know in real life) or over 500 business associates. These networks define us, the generation that shares (my new definition of Gen Y), but how do you deal with this mentality when creating your applications? Do you ever think about "saving us" from ourselves? 

As I took my daily Starbucks run the other day (I mean, I am a classic example of Gen Y, what did you expect? Dunkin Donuts??), I began chatting with a co-worker about AIM profiles. Remember the days when the Internet was brought to you in a nice, localized, safe package? Remember the AOL homescreen and the friendly "you've got mail" notification? 

For many of us those days are gone, but all of the new technologies we use today have origins in these older systems. Our Facebook profile, my co-worker and I realized, is really just an extension of our masterfully designed AIM bios. The only difference is that there's a lot more on the line these days; these days we're sharing our actual name. 

Not many people used their real name for screennames or MySpace profiles back in the day, but today's society demands that we share that -- and a whole lot more. 

Thinking about this, I started to wonder -- how does privacy and security fit into a culture that is bent on sharing every little thing that happens to them during the day? How can developers save us from ourselves? Is that even a possibility? 

Of all the applications on my iPhone, I think the best example of this is my Chase bank application. I log in, it remembers my username but never my password, and then I check what I need to and close the app. All other apps that I do this with (Facebook, Twitter, AIM) stay logged in. Chase (after 15 mins or so) logs me out. Even if I opened the application again, I wouldn't be able to do anything without putting my password in. 

Do you incorporate bank level security into your consumer apps? Or do you think it is up to the consumer to protect him/her self? 

How will you connect privacy, security and sharing in 2012? Tell us!