This writer of the Geek dad column for Wired explains what you need to know to understand what personal data is to a company like Facebook—and what else you need to know, as the fury continues over breaches of privacy.

Wired

…”the backlash to the recent changes and integration of Facebook across multiple sharing networks has been less than mixed. It’s been negative. There have been constant tweets and articles written about Facebook’s complete disregard for our “personal” data.

“The claims are valid. Suddenly, it’s not just your friends that are viewing your updates and profile, it’s their friends, strangers and marketers – unless you change your settings. The setting changes aren’t complex, they are quite simple in fact – but the sudden notification by Facebook is what irked a lot of people. They started to worry about their “personal” data. All along though, within all the complaints and stress about “personal” data, people lost sight of a couple of realities.”

Source: Wired, May 7, 2010