We all loved facebook.

Some of us still do, in spite of the news that facebook is going to sell user information to advertisers.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/03/facebook_market_research/

The thing that people liked about facebook was that your privacy always seemed to be valued. You had to approve any sort of access to anything more than your name and picture. You had to approve third party applications` access to your data. All that stuff.

These features gave a lot of users a much needed sense of control. And that`s one of the reasons why facebook has millions of users. So your privacy just went to shit! I never cared much for that kind of privacy. The privacy I do care about losing is the kind that involves anything I strive for. This means money, ideas I think I should keep to myself, stuff like that. Who I’m dating is something I rarely consider ‘private.’

So why is facebook selling info to advertisers bad? Pause and think. This means that when you do visit facebook, you won`t just see internally approved ads. You’ll also see targeted ads. Well that`s great!
If I get ads based on my friends` activity, that`s good. I like my friends and most of them are smart people. So ads targeted at smart people should be good enough for me. Also, ads based on my location — Timisoara, Romania for you freaky people that I don`t know — are great because that means I won`t see offers that I might like, but don`t apply to me because of my location.

If you start seeing a lot of ads you don`t like, that either means you are too eager to make friends with people you don`t really know or your friends are somewhat retarded — which should give you a reason to think about yourself.

Any way you look at it, facebook is doing you a favor.
Now pause and let the goodness sink in.

` is an homage to two of my friends, they know who they are