Facebook and privacy

Tonight I again saw a Facebook update from a friend with detailed instructions about all the privacy changes they expected me to make to ensure their content was kept "Private."  Using the common boilerplate, they even threatened to unfriend me if I didn't comply.  I see this post every few months and my reply each time is the same:

Facebook doesn't feel content should be private. 

If you want your content to be private, please don't share it with Facebook.

Facebook privacy rules ebb and flow as legal requirements demand, but please understand, their privacy rules will ebb.  Facebook is about sharing content and at some point they WILL share the content you share with them.  

If you truly want a piece of content to remain private, DON'T SHARE IT WITH FACEBOOK in the first place!

 Please unfriend me at your convenience.

Wow...I encouraged them to unfriend me?  Yes, because they don't get the first law of Facebook.  Hidden (well, not really hidden) in the heart of Mark Zuckerberg is the notion that content should be public.  Your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, Friends List, and all the pages you subscribe to should be easily viewed and searchable.  In 2011, +Rand Fishkin, CEO of Moz, said: "Want to publish and have privacy? Keep a journal locked in a drawer written in a language only you understand."  Facebook can be considered a journal - but it's not in a drawer, it's certainly not locked, and because of their core culture it never will be fully locked.