UPDATE 11-Aug-2010: Facebook Export is a free tool that will download all your Facebook information - friends, pictures, wall notes, profile, etc. - to your own computer in XML format, which is widely supported. This makes it easy to backup your data, take back your data before you delete your account, or migrate your data somewhere else (destination must support FBE file format for direct import.) (Aug 11, 2010)

UPDATE 28-Jul-2010: Here's an example of a data privacy breach. This wasn't a sophisticated hack, and it is only one of dozens that have been reported (likely of hundreds that haven't been reported). Clearly, Facebook is not capable of keeping any kind of privacy promises, even their ever-shifting ones. Another example of how their social contract is just plain worthless. (July 29, 2010).

Hello friends and family!

You may have noticed that I deleted my Facebook account. I know, it was handy to have a bunch of friends and family updates in one place - although the poor user interface, the ads that somehow used pictures of my friends to catch my eye, and the crap-stream of notices from the games were all enough to make Facebook a net-zero proposition.

Still, net-zero isn't a loss. However, Facebook's latest bungle of privacy settings and wide expansion of selling user data to advertisers definitely kick them into the negative side of the balance.

While Zuckerburg and Facebook staff say they care about their users and that they are simply evolving user privacy options that protect the user base, their actions clearly show that Facebook's only true priority is making money with your data, in all kinds of creepy new ways.

One blunder in privacy changes - back in 2008 - I could consider a mistake. The second, bolder blunder six months ago was bad, but the user response and backlash was big enough to make Facebook backpedal a bit, and I had hoped they learned their lesson.

This third and latest privacy shred indicates that not only didn't they learn their lesson, they are more bent than ever on making money selling user data and, now, they are even okay with "passively fooling"* users into a false sense of safety and privacy while peddling more data to more third parties with less qualification and less control than ever.

It is the third strike, a severe renege of the social contract that Facebook has with users, and it is more than enough for me to leave.

Thus, I'm done with Facebook. The next cool thing will come along soon (remember the glory and downfall of MySpace? It all cycles pretty quickly in the digital world), and we'll all see each other on the new thing. That next cool thing will have learned from Facebook's mistakes, I'm sure (or else they won't get big).

Until then, you can catch me here on my blog, email, Twitter, and Google. The Facebook party is over, so until the next party, we'll see ya around the streets of the 'net!

Beyond the multiple lawsuits filed about this and now a possible Federal Trade Commission investigation and possible congressional action against Facebook, Here's a sampling of what people are saying around the net:

• Electronic Frontier Foundation: Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline
• To see a visual step-by-step, check out: The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook by Matt McKeon, and IBM research developer. Click on each year-date to see the changes.
• New York Times: Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options
• PC Magazine: Facebook Targeted by New FTC Privacy Complaint
• PC World: How Facebook Pulled a Privacy Bait and Switch

From TechCrunch:

• Senators Call Out Facebook On ‘Instant Personalization’, Other Privacy Issues
• I Think Facebook Just Seized Control Of The Internet
• Yelp Security Hole Puts Facebook User Data At Risk, Underscores Problems With ‘Instant Personalization’

From eWeek (warning: ad blitz site): 10 Things to Remember About Facebook Privacy and Security

UPDATE

And a good post and conversation about the squirmy details of social contract and the kinds of actions that would back-up Facebook's claim that they care about users and privacy is If Facebook were smart… by Jeff Jarvis. Thanks to Alan Rosenblith for Tweeting this link.

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*"Passively fooling" includes allowing people to believe that the original social contract (general understanding and expectations) is still in place, even though it isn't. Facebook is severely altering the deal, and yet, most of their users don't understand the implications. The burden of education and informed agreement to the new deal is on the deal-changers side, and it is true that such change is challenging to do well on a social contract level. Just because it's difficult, though, doesn't mean you won't pay the consequences if you don't do it.