For all we know, the difference between google and facebook here is simply maturity of the company, and as facebook matures, it's very possible that they'll recant their privacy evilness, to the extent that they can.

Here's what I mean by that last part: the facebook site/service are all about poking holes in your own privacy (in a controlled manner); it's just that currently, you might be carefully letting out bits of information, but facebook is off to the side hawking all of it to all comers, trying to be profitable.

But yeah I agree, at its current stage of gestation as a company, facebook doesn't give a rat's ass about the privacy of your data.

>>For all we know, the difference between google and facebook here is simply maturity of the company

Facebook is not some new company struggling to find its way in the world. It's huge.

Nor is it new. Google was started in 1998; Facebook in 2004. So Google is 15 and Facebook is 9.

Is that such a big difference? Has Google ever behaved the way Facebook has?

Facebook has faced multiple privacy scandals. It has not said, "whoops, that was an oversight, we'll ensure it never happens again." It has said "meh," and waited for people to get over it.

This is not about maturity, this is about philosophy and character. Facebook's business model is about harvesting and exploiting your data. They are doing that deliberately, and they're more likely to go out of business than to change.