At this point, there have been so many stories detailing how Facebook and similar sites give away personal information, that I have little pity for anyone still using these sites who might be surprised or offended to learn that their profile is essentially 100% accessible to advertisers and others.
Facebook, MySpace caught releasing user data – Yahoo! News
In a seemingly never-ending string of damaging disclosures about its users’ privacy concerns, Facebook has reportedly been releasing user data to ad companies that hadn’t even asked for the info.Facebook isn’t alone this time: rival social-media site MySpace has also been called out in Friday’s Wall Street Journal report by Emily Steel and Jessica E. Vascellaro — together with the content-sharing sites Livejournal and Digg.
The report says that the companies have delivered user data to major online advertising companies such as Google’s DoubleClick and Yahoo!’s Right Media, despite explicit pledges to protect such information. The released material includes user names and ID numbers, together with data that could be used to accumulate a host of additional information on individual users, such as where they live, their names, occupations, incomes and places of employment.(emphasis added)