Absolutely! Again, I'm not arguing that there are no privacy concerns overall, or that there are no misuses possible. Even when we don't intend on giving person

Absolutely! Again, I'm not arguing that there are no privacy concerns overall, or that there are no misuses possible. Even when we don't intend on giving personal information, the data we provide random companies can be used to create ridiculous profiles of us, as the article on Target's (amongst others) use of behavioral profiling a few weeks ago demonstrated most compellingly. All of that data can be used in really creepy and problematic ways. What I'm mostly saying is that a lot of the you-are-the-product hate is often presented hand-in-hand with “facebook just gives your information away to advertisers willy nilly so they can make money”, and I'm saying that's not really accurate. Facebook need you to stay on their site, so they get you to share information because that brings you and others onto the site. For advertising purposes, though, they don't have to give away any information, really. And at that point it becomes a matter of “do I trust Facebook with my information”, rather than trusting anyone advertising on facebook with it. This is a smaller question, so it is fundamentally easier to answer. Now, the fb API of course expands the question to “do I trust facebook… Or any site I visit that uses the facebook API”. But still, there is a “me” component there—I have to visit those sites. This is still a potential problem, no question, but it is not the oft-presented specter of facebook sharing your private information with an arbitrary third party for the sole purpose of presenting advertisements on the site. That's the refrain I hear a lot that I wanted to say something about.