Facebook has been vilified over and over. Undeservedly so

I am glad that finally someone has the chops to step up defending this fine venue of social, altruistic exchange.

Oh, there is also an article by William Davies 'Why the Outrage?' Indeed, why?

Anon March 25, 2018 at 8:24 am

Disclosure: I’ve worked with Google and Facebook as a partner and vendor.

Google is obsessed with secrecy. Their employees are models of nondisclosure in conversation, and you get the sense that they regard data privacy as important. They do link users to advertisers but they do not do so by selling a profile of you. If advertisers learn about you, it is only through the side channel of the links you click-through. Their Software-as-Services use cryptographic techniques to disperse your data into their datacenter. Your user login protects a cryptograph key which is used to spread your data as shards over their storage. Without that key, Google does not know which data is yours, let alone what your data says. Etc, etc.

Facebook has a culture of openness. They openly publish the work going on at facebook. They encouraging sharing. Their attitude is that the value of facebook comes from the team/organization not what they have built in the past. The have data collaborations with academics, and it’s clear they allow a fair amount of access to your profile to 3rd parties. This reflects their overall open attitude toward information. I think facebook is upfront about their openness recognizing the need for consent, and they have mostly excellent & improving privacy tools.