There's a very interesting Google Groups (Usenet) post by Erik Aronesty (erik@zoneedit.com) comparing the Orkut social network to the PGP "Web of Trust".
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm...ing.google.com
One important security and privacy point made in the post is:
Quote:
Ultimately, a great Web of Trust user interface could look something
like Orkut, except it would be hosted locally and would be a P2P
application. Thus it would not require any centralized authority,
such as Google, to maintain.
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It's a bit ominous to imagine that the centralized friend association information might be misused one day to link you to someone suspected of terrorism even if indirectly. I'm convinced this could become an issue for honest citizens sooner or later.