Wow...either this article is a satire or we have another author who is completely out of touch with the reality of the internet and information age.

The comments about the 'poke' function on facebook have brought tears to my eyes....hilarious...you can almost see a Mr Bean episode about it..

Brilliant and erudite. Not quite sure whether it is serious or fun though. I think the allusion fails because those who submit themselves to the poking of the internet do not necessarily submit themselves. Prisoners or students in Bentham's panoptican did not have this option.
Personally I think privacy is too costly a privilege. Just think of the human advance if the total of our genetic, dietary, medical, and family histories were able to be fed into a huge multivariate algorithm. What correlations of connections would emerge? What possibilities for analyses to advance our understandings of human health and happiness!