what is the best way to keep your personal detail private?

[aeonstorm0]

I just look up a friend on the internet and I was able to find such person with ease stating where they live how long and where they moved too. then I decided to look up myself did not find one trace regardless of how many are with my same name. what should people do in order to maintain their privacy and also does public record contributes to information being unleash onto the internet network. Does signing into to facebook twitter, My space, does signing to social network could that be also a problem unless they strictly does not sell your information taking into account that such info is accurate

[abraXus]

the best way is to just not put it online in the first place