Facebook has over 750 million users. With that many people in one place you can be sure the bad boys are interested.
The Vancouver Sun's reporting a study conducted by UBC researchers in which they used computer generated fake Facebook profiles ("bots") to collect sensitive personal information about thousands of Facebook users. The data collected included email addresses and phone numbers. The bots were able to get information from accounts they specifically targeted and friends of those accounts. Among other things the study revealed how willing people are to accept friend requests from strangers if they appear to have a mutual friend in common.
EMarketer projects Facebook will earn $4.27 billion this year. Advertising accounts for $3.8 billion with another $470 million coming from Facebook credits. With that much money at stake its essential that Facebook prove to advertisers that it's money well spent. At the end of September it was discovered that Facebook tracks users' web use even after they've logged out of Facebook. The recommendation was to use one browser only for Facebook, log out and shut it down and then use a different browser for everything else.
Facebook responded to these reports by claiming the tracking was a software error. It's since been changed and is not currently an issue. It is, however, easy to see this as an effort to illustrate the value of the platform to advertisers. Pretty hard to know what was actually going on.
There have been - and likely will continue to be - serious privacy concerns regarding Facebook. It's not just you keeping up with your friends, kids or mom. It is big business and you can be sure they're going to look to maximize their profits. If you're going to play you need to know the risks and make informed decisions.