That is a bit of a bold statement given the circumstances. The "... it's a gift ..." turn of phrase doesn't imply that Facebook (or any specific entity) is doi

That is a bit of a bold statement given the circumstances. The "... it's a gift ..." turn of phrase doesn't imply that Facebook (or any specific entity) is doing a conscious act of gift-giving. The outcome can be seen as a "gift" for the desirability of the item and the serendipitous way it is dropped on the receiver's lap. More than ever Facebook is trying to protect its data from three letter agencies. [...] Trust them for a chance. They're leverage their power over users to collect data. It is generally to be expected, and is now explicitly known, that collecting data like that is an attractive target for the government to leverage their power over businesses (both Facebook and the communication infrastructure between users and Facebook) to get at the data. We can bitch and moan about the existence and capabilities of those powers, but at some point facebook is choosing to consolidate data in a world where those powers exist. It's a tightrope balance for Facebook to minimize the collection possible through technical and legal means, and maintaining their business model hoovering up data. And that's fine, that's their business, whatever. It's just not trustworthy.