Does the existence of Facebook really merit a rewrite of data law?

Jealousy?

Governments are merely peed off 'cos Facebook has all this info (some of it actually real) about people.

Faceless, nameless, people sitting in offices somewhere digging out relationships between citizens using various available data-gathering tools using taxpayers money. The spooks are being done out of a job.

Why don't government agencies just buy the same data as the game providers?

It'd save a fortune.

User contract

'All' Facebook provides is the infrastructure- people go onto FB for the words and images created by their own friends. It seems quite different to the implicit contract of commercial TV - 'we entertain you for 25 minutes, you watch our sponsors messages for 5'.

The cost of developing and maintaining FB's infrastructure must surely be tiny per user. Since for many FB has become a de facto address book and in some parts of the world (see Arab Spring) a very real form of political interaction, governments really should do their job of standing up for their citizens, and legislate. If this results in a massive devaluation of FB's stock, so be it. It will only hurt those who invested in exploiting other people's data.

<end rant>

Facebook has been around since 2004,

It's probably here to stay for a while yet.

Broadly, up to now, the law provides that you give personal data only to companies that you choose to allow to use it, and they can use it in any reasonable way in doing business with you, plus any way that you have agreed to. Tip: don't agree to let them give it to other people, even for free phone minutes. Do that once and you're damned forever. It's also presumed that your data will only be held where European law applies.

Facebook is located outside the EU and it uses data in very wide ways that many of its users don't think about until things go wrong, so there is a need for legislators to create and impose rules for use of personal data to protect citizens from amoral private interests. They might be just able to limit the power of government itself to spy on you, also, but don't count on it.