Protect yourself
Run BetterPrivacy, NoScript etc. Also - https://adblockplus.org/blog/about-that-facebook-tracking-thing
Facebook has reportedly been illegally tracking the web browsing habits of every visitor to its site, even if those visitors aren't account holders or have explicitly opted out of tracking when within the EU, according to a critical analysis by researchers at the University of Leuven and the Free University of Brussels. The …
Better still, don't use FB, don't go anywhere near it, mark as spam anything anyone ever sends you which is even remotely FB releated.
If your friends need to contact you, they most likely have your email or phone number - and if they don't, then they probably aren't your friends.
Rember kiddies, a FaceBook "friend" is NOT your friend just because they've "friended" you...
Both are leveraged to create a vast advertising network…
If that's all it was I could almost live with it: there's some mileage in the argument properly targeted advertising is less intrusive. But the truth is Facebook, et al. are collecting far more data than is useful for advertising purposes. They're also using it for purposes other than advertising just not being so vocal about selling it to credit rating agencies, employment agencies, insurance companies. And, of course, the NSA can have a look at it whenever they want. It's entirely possible that we won't be offered jobs, refused insurance or credit because of what the networks believe to know about us. Even if they have safeguards in place against this, the data collected is of almost incalculable value in the wrong hands; whether that's the spooks or the crooks is probably just a matter of opinion.
This toxic software company is looking more and more like a nuclear industrial accident.. the initial orgasmic IPO resulting in a mushroom cloud of paper money, then the at first barely noticeable but eventually impossible to ignore creeping influence into websites, societies, and business practices.
It used to be that American technology companies were something to be admired.. now they're like the creepy looking jalopy playing rap music that breaks down in your neighborhood, eventually attracting criminals and second-order decay.
There probably needs to be some sort of international agency to police these things to keep them from destroying technology companies that operate with integrity.