IIRC Facebook is currently owned by founder Mark Zuckerberg and venture capitalist partners who have chipped in almost $13 million I think. But the important point is that Zuckerberg and co. haven’t lost control and that the company is still tiny compared to giants like Google.

The reason why I trust Facebook (as it is) more is because I feel they are more transparent than Google about their objectives and their information gathering and use. Here’s a snippet from their Privacy Policy:

Facebook is about sharing information with others — friends and people in your networks — while providing you with privacy settings that restrict other users from accessing your information. We allow you to choose the information you provide to friends and networks through Facebook. Our network architecture and your privacy settings allow you to make informed choices about who has access to your information. We do not provide contact information to third party marketers without your permission. We share your information with third parties only in limited circumstances where we believe such sharing is 1) reasonably necessary to offer the service, 2) legally required or, 3) permitted by you.

Of course there have been lots of questions asked about Facebook’s Privacy Policy and their actions too. An example is how the Facebook Platform complicates things:

Before allowing any Platform Developer to make any Platform Application available to you, Facebook requires the Platform Developer to enter into an agreement which, among other things, requires them to respect your privacy settings and strictly limits their collection, use, and storage of your information. However, while we have undertaken contractual and technical steps to restrict possible misuse of such information by such Platform Developers, we of course cannot and do not guarantee that all Platform Developers will abide by such agreements.

But I can’t help but feel that I’m more comfortable with their approach than what we have so far seen from Google.

Interestingly, a recent report from Privacy International roundly condemns both Google and Facebook. They even gave better marks to Microsoft (who I trust a lot more than either Google or Facebook).

it’d be priceless. if you think about it it’s effectively monitoring how people are connected (who dated who for eg), their likes/dislikes, personal info, photographs, daily habits/events, what you’re buying or selling, etc.

facebook = big brother