Maintaining Anonymity

If you are a Facebook user you probably got a very vague email in the last couple days about a class action lawsuit regarding privacy and something called Beacon. The lawsuit has apparently been in court for a year and I'd never heard of Beacon. You can read more about both here and here.

In a time when our world seems to be rapidly shrinking thanks to all the hip new ways we can stay connected (think cell phones, iPhones, Blackberries, wireless internet that is available everywhere, Google Earth, news outlets that update every 2 minuets with new information, etc) it's becoming harder and harder to maintain anonymity--but it appears that many people don't care or don't even notice. Facebook has 300 million users, and I am one of them. I am a fan of new media, but how far can we push it? What is the tipping point between staying informed and being too informed? Yes, I like to be able to look at photos from my closest friends trip to the beach or to be reminded about my cousins birthday and have a fast and free way to let her know I'm thinking of her, but do I really need to know that some chick I went to high school with has a three year old who is driving her nuts, or that my former co-worker got shit-faced drunk while watching the Civil War game?

This wouldn't fly in reality, so is it a compromise of our character to let it happen virtually?