USAF, 15 June 2010: . . . . During the past couple of months, I’ve spent a lot of time studying social networking and OPSEC. One thing is painfully obvious: social networking and OPSEC are on opposite ends of the communication spectrum. OPSEC is about identifying critical information and safeguarding information that could be useful to our adversaries, while social networking is all about sharing information, and in some cases, too much information (no, we do not want to know what you had for dinner last night).

In fact, during the past month, I’ve attended several briefings that almost had me convinced to run home and deactivate all of my social networking accounts. Almost. I didn’t actually ban social networking from my life, because I understand the risks, I pay attention to privacy settings, and I’m not likely to post my address or phone number for the world to see.

The information did have a noticeable affect on a few others, however. During each briefing, as I scanned the audience, I noticed some of the older attendees were excitedly nodding their heads in agreement, while some of the younger Airmen were doing a not-so-good job of hiding their smirks and eye rolls.

The fact is, Americans today are sharing more information about themselves than ever before, and the social networking industry is betting they’ll maintain that habit, and perhaps share even more information about themselves and their friends. . . . .