Is Anything Private

The Poynter Institute's e-media tidbits highlighted a problem I've been considering a lot lately: in the digital age, is any communication private anymore?
Poynter points to a recent case involving an e-mail exchange between a reporter and reader, which the latter then posted to her blog without informing the reporter or providing context.
Last spring, I spoke with an editor who was mortified when what appeared to be a private conversation about an ethical lapse ended up racing around some blogs like a forest fire (a reader rep had said in private that an incident was a "f***ing trainwreck" ... you can imagine how dismayed she was when her colleagues saw that characterization in print).
You can circulate what I say in lecture, copy and paste parts of my e-mails, visit me in office hours and blog about my comments, all largely without context. The Web has the power to convert private exchanges into public stories.
When everyone can be a publisher, is anything private? What does this mean for us as a society? Is it helpful, e.g. does it strip away layers of secrecy that cloak problems? Does it hurt us, e.g. make us less open to conversation and deliberation?

Listening in on the Phone for Ads

Wow, this may be the most significant privacy question with telephony since the NSA started listening in:
Company Will Monitor Phone Calls to Tailor Ads
What do you think of this? Would you use a service that listened in on your calls? Did you know that gmail does that with your e-mails? How would you feel if the government were doing it instead? (I, for one, am immediately suspicious of their claim that they won't save data about the calls. My response would be, "That's what you say ... for now.")