Formerly viewed as a
marginal activity restricted to the technically savvy, blogging is slowly
becoming more of a mainstream phenomenon on the Internet. Thanks to much media
hype and some high profile blog sites, these online journals have captured the
public‘simagination. As novice authors plunge into the thrilling world of blog
publishing, they soon realize that publicly writing about one‘slife and
interests is not as simple as it might seem at first. As they become prolific
writers, more bloggers find themselves having to deal with issues of privacy and
liability. Accounts of bloggers either hurting friends? feelings or losing jobs
because of materials published on their sites are becoming more
frequent. 

Here we report the findings from an online survey
conducted between January 14th and January 21st, 2004. During that time, 486
respondents answered questions about their blogging practices and their
expectations of privacy and accountability for the entries they publish
online…
—Blog Survey: Expectations of Privacy and Accountability (MIT Media Laboratory)