Some of us would rather not. We'd like to keep our personal information--from the stuff we share on Facebook to our credit card and Social Security numbers--under some control. We'd prefer not to let such details out into the wild, where they can be bought and sold and, often, used against us.

If you, to, are a privacy traditionalist, take heart: There are things you can do to make browsing, shopping, socializing, and other online activities less of a threat. That CEO was doubtless right in one sense: We can't keep all of our private information private anymore. But we can certainly make it harder for those who'd like to make it public.