Ethics and the connected environment

I've already been concerned in another blog about the ethics of monetisation: I don't have a problem with people being paid through advertising for engaging with a wide audience, but as an educator I cannot have a vested financial interest in something which I am encouraging students to use.

But what about the wider issue of obliging people to hook up to a range of networking tools when they might guard their privacy closely? Mostly, of course, it is possible to restrict visibility very carefully: this is fine as long as the student concerned can still complete the learning tasks.