Of course we all know about the recent near-tragedy that took place on a flight over the Christmas holiday. While the attempt was thwarted, there was a real chance that the plane could have exploded, killing all of the passengers and crew.

One thing that has been revealed in the aftermath is that once again the American government had access to information that could have alerted them to this kind of threat, but the information was either ignored or misused. It shows a serious flaw in the system when important information such as that can go overlooked or can be wrongly interpreted or kept in private.

Because of these information gaps, many people are starting to wonder if one of the next steps that government agencies will take is an increased online watchdog presence. It's well known that programs from the CIA and elsewhere already populate social networks such as Facebook. But how much do these programs really look at and what else can they find out about you as you just mind your business online?

Your best bet is to keep anything private completely off the Internet. Even if you save a private photo or message from a friend on a service such as Facebook, it can still be found. And of course, all of your Tweets, blog posts and forum posts can all easily be found. With agencies more tuned into the need to find and evaluate information from all sources, your online privacy may just be a thing of the past.

So when you're browsing the web and using your favorite social networking sites, use extra caution with what kinds of information you share publicly, and what you store privately. Increased government protection to help prevent terror threats such as this is a necessary and purposeful step, but your online privacy shouldn't suffer as a result.