I'd say the big difference with google is they can treat a social network as a loss leader. Google has other (far more profitable) forms of privacy invading rev

I'd say the big difference with google is they can treat a social network as a loss leader. Google has other (far more profitable) forms of privacy invading revenue sources, facebook doesn't. It's not a ideal solution however. If as a society we have decided social networks are important a not for profit, or decentralised federated scheme is probably the way to go.