In a Wall Street Journal article related to Twitter’s settling of a privacy-related case, Consumer Protection Bureau Director David Vladeck states:
Consumers who use social networking sites may choose to share some information with others, but they still have a right to expect that their personal information will be kept private and secure.
If I, as a consumer, choose to create an account with a free social network service like Twitter, why am I entitled to anything beyond the terms of services to which I agreed?
Indeed – a point worth raising more often. Given recent events, I’ve increasingly often considered deleting my Facebook account, and I may yet do so one day. As long as that opt-out remains available, I have all the control I’m entitled to for this popular free service that I’ve previously voluntarily chosen to sign up with.
TOS verbiage notwithstanding, anything more fine-grained than that is simply a benevolent gesture on Facebook’s part, not something to feel entitled to. Facebook’s interests are not perfectly aligned with those of its users, and expecting otherwise would indeed be a tad delusional.