ethical design?

Been thinking where that eerie feeling of my previous post (1984) comes from. It has to do with the fact that information is harvested about me and used without me being aware of it or consciously giving permission for it. I hate the idea that you must "do good" if you don't want strange people to slap you in the face with information about something you might have done (years ago and/or don't even remember). Doing good is then only based on fear, that can't be right.

I don't believe people should actively be protected from themselves, but it should be made clear that information you publish on the web might be used by others and I don't think a warning message will suffice. The complete experience of publishing information should radiate that anyone can see and use the information once you've published it.

So is regulation needed to establish some sort of level of moral or ethical use of information? I don't see that happening very soon. I think that the people/companies who create web applications (social networks, blog websites, fora etc) should have an ethical code and design in a more ethical way. Not only that, they should take responsibility and coach businesses on an ethical level while developing social web applications.