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Every media whore out there is sperging out over Facebook privacy issues. You can barely go a day or two without some new overhyped supposed Facebook privacy scandal being overhyped. However, most online comments about this issue are generally wrong. The idea that Facebook is violating peoples' privacy on a massive scale is provably bullshit for one simple reason, the ads on Facebook are pathetically stupid.

Facebook knows everything about me

Facebook knows almost everything there is to know about me. They know what movies I love, what women I'm in like with, what music I rock out to, and what hobbies I like to do in my spare time. They should be able to combine the fact that I like Eminem and NIN and other bands and calculate what other bands I might also like and make obscene amounts of money just through music-related ads. They should be able to do the same for TV shows and be hawking boxes of DVDs of other similar shows to me. They should be advertising books I might like based on my other choices. Yet 99% of the ads I see on Facebook are really dumb, desperate, or fake dating sites and other assorted nonsense. Here is a small sample of the types of ads that I see most frequently on Facebook.

I actually like ads

I usually pay attention to ads on sites with a tasteful amount of advertising because I like finding out about new products and getting a good deal. As long as Facebook has to have ads, I'd love for the ads to be useful. But if I see a pretty girl on the right side of a Facebook page, I don't even glance at the ads on Facebook anymore because I know they're useless and stupid ads from some spammy dating site that maybe a dozen real people use. To me, conditioning people to ignore your ads is a really serious problem.

Why are Facebook privacy issues being overhyped?

The media is lazy and dumb and always looks to bash those on top looking for an easy story. This is why Steve Jobs and Apple get ridiculous attack stories on them every day. This is why Facebook is getting hammered day after day and why Googling phrases like "mark zuckerberg is evil" gets so many results. Zuckerberg isn't evil, he has done absolutely nothing unreasonable with the vast amount of personal data he has. Attacking Facebook and Apple gets pageviews. Vapid sites like TechCrunch use these techniques to great effect every time they want more traffic.

What real Facebook privacy issues exist?

I'm not suggesting that there aren't some privacy issues on Facebook. The Facebook privacy settings can be improved dramatically in how they are worded and what defaults exist. I don't think people are always clear on what information is made public and what information isn't made public. And there are a few other privacy issues that exist, but everything regarding this topic has gotten radically overhyped online. Look at the Diaspora flop amongst the masses as proof of this.

Facebook's focus on making money.

The business of advertising is big business. Facebook is in a position to become financially as dominant as Google. People log into Facebook every day and spend hours on it. I wish Mark Zuckerberg would focus more on trying to serve up great ads. This would provide a ton of real value to businesses, advertisers, and consumers. And you don't even have to specifically violate anybody's privacy to do so.

Conclusion

Privacy-wise, Facebook isn't that bad and most Facebook privacy issues are significantly overhyped. Facebook ought to focus more on finding ways to serving up great ads instead of trying to earn the respect of a media that is just looking for an attack story.