Congress is back on the war path about file sharing systems that critics say make it a little too easy for consumers, businesses, and even government agencies to accidentally disclose confidential records.

"Peer-to-peer systems make it possible, and in some cases too easy, for people to share personal files," Davidson explained. "There is evidence on major peer-to-peer networks of users sharing very sensitive documents like their tax returns, inboxes, or check registers, certainly in most cases by mistake."

The experts call this "inadvertent file sharing"—sloppiness that exposes consumers to identity thieves. Basically, some newbies don't get that when they install P2P software, they need to be mindful of which of their computer folders are being shared (free advice: don't leave a PDF of your divorce settlement in "C:\Documents and Settings\User\MyDocuments" and let LimeWire read the folder).

It was less than two weeks ago when The Pirate Bay implemented a new feature making it easier for site users to post links to torrents on their Facebook profile, so their friends can download those torrents with just a single click.

This morning Facebook decided to put an end to the sharing and blocked not only the feature, but all links to Pirate Bay’s torrents. The ‘Share on Facebook’ button on the TPB torrent download pages doesn’t work anymore, and neither does the Facebook bookmarklet. Manually adding a link to your Facebook messages isn’t allowed either, regardless of the “legality” of the content it’s linking to. Facebook has basically launched a site-wide ban of Pirate Bay torrent URLs.

If you want to try this, let me know.

filesharing

Interesting.