We are getting smarter about online sharing

New Pew Internet report on online reputation management shows everyone taking a more active role

Facebook launches new developer features that get the attention of privacy advocates. Four Democratic US senators send an open letter to founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg chastising the man and his social network for stepping over the line. Zuckerberg essentially apologizes for a lack of simple privacy controls on Facebook and promises that they will appear on the site shortly.

And that's just a brief summary of the last month's events. The story of privacy and social networks runs far, far deeper.

Still, we might be giving users less credit than they deserve.

According to a new Pew Internet investigation into online reputation management and privacy, users are taking an increasingly active role in monitoring what they are sharing publicly on the Web.

About 57% of adult Internet users (up from 47% in 2006) search for their own names on search engines to see exactly what information about themselves is accessible to anybody online. Even young adults are taking an active role in managing their online identity; 71% of social networking users aged between 18-29 have changed their privacy settings to limit what others can see.

"Search engines and social media sites now play a central role in building one’s identity online," said Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist at the Internet & American Life Project and lead author of the report, entitled "Reputation Management and Social Media."

"Many users are learning and refining their approach as they go–changing privacy settings on profiles, customizing who can see certain updates and deleting unwanted information about them that appears online."

All across the board, young adults (18-29) appear to be more active in managing personal data than adults (30-49).

While 44% of young adults limit their personal information online, only 33% of adults do the same. Almost half of young adults have deleted unwanted comments, whereas just 29% of adults have taken similar action. Finally, 41% of young adults and 24% of adults have removed their names from online photos.

The gap only widens with older users.

What's clear, in the end, is that users are indeed getting smarter about sharing information online. If younger users are not ignoring their online reputation, then we might suspect online reputation management to become the norm in the future.