When it comes to Facebook users and their messages, almost nobody knows who can see or share their posts on social networks. And that's a problem that must be fixed, says Mike Elgan.

The U.S. military wants to put smartphones in the hands of all deployed troops. Their phones are going to be better than regular smartphones, says Mike Elgan, and that's why he wants one.

David Petraeus, a brilliant man, did the dumbest thing imaginable with his email. He trusted it with his secrets. Here are some other options for keeping private things private online.

If you're paranoid that your phone is spying on you, don't watch Person of Interest, which highlights the many ways to hack, track, listen in on and use smartphones to monitor people, says Mike Elgan.

Fingerprint readers, iris scanners, palm vein scanners, facial recognition systems and more -- biometric ID tools are going mainstream. But will the mainstream go biometric?

The upcoming Google+ History will prepare your content for sharing, but holds it in a private space until you choose to share it. It's how social networking should work, writes columnist Mike Elgan.

Imagine sitting down at a public PC, surfing the Web, visiting Facebook, checking your online bank account and buying something on Amazon.com -- all without entering passwords or credit card information.

In the 1949 novel 1984, George Orwell imagined a brilliant but depressing future in which the government, a.k.a. "Big Brother," broadcast propaganda while simultaneously watching every citizen via ubiquitous "telescreens" in every home and in public places. Video feeds are monitored by the "Thought Police," who are constantly on the lookout for facial expressions and body language that reveal "thought crimes." They wanted to know what you were thinking.

An insurance expert told the Britain's Telegraph newspaper that using location-centric mobile social services like Google Buzz, Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare could raise your home insurance premiums, or even result in the denial of insurance claims.