MySpace is now their space – and so is all your MySpace data

How much this data is actually worth is another good question. MySpace users aren’t typically the richest slice of demographic cheesecake. A 2010 study by Nielsen Claritas indicates that MySpacers tend to be lower income and more rural than Facebookers. In short, Facebook members favor Boursin and Beamers; MySpace users trend toward pork rinds and pickup trucks.

A casual stroll through MySpace will turn up a lot of teenagers, wanna-be rock stars, trailer park denizens, and -- for reasons that demand further study -- an inordinate number of adult entertainers. It seems a lot of MySpace users can also be found wrapped around a pole. (Ba-dum-bump. Thank you, I’ll be here all week.)

This is probably the biggest privacy threat posed by social media, and yet it’s something almost no one talks about: What happens to your deeply personal data when the company you trusted to keep it safe is swallowed up by somebody else with their own agenda?

I guess we’re about to find out.

The MySpace acquisition should be a wake up call for many people who share too much of themselves online. But it probably wont.