Whilst i agree with you, the devil's advocacy in me says, "what happens when Facebook gets sued for this data exposure?" And there are two avenues that might

Whilst i agree with you, the devil's advocacy in me says, "what happens when Facebook gets sued for this data exposure?" And there are two avenues that might happen - investors suing as to loss of potential revenue, and user(s) suing over privacy violations. Bear in mind, FB have already had class actions against them.. i don't think setting aside another 10m+ (conservative) just to defend yet another nuisance lawsuit is something they're going to be up for. So, as Pete Warden described, they bullied him into shutting it all down with threats that they could just as easily lose in court - based on the principle that it's cheaper for them to sue Pete and lose cred amongst us than it would be for them to face a class action from users who are led to believe that their privacy has been violated by the data set via an ambulance-chasing lawyer. Facebook should have instead invited Pete in for a chat and a job, but instead they took the full frontal lawyer bulldog approach. Sometimes that happens. Hopefully next time it wont- and i've already poked my friends at FB to raise the issue internally if possible -- and so should you.