Mat Honan for Gizmodo:

If you have a Facebook account, you’ve likely seen your dull friends post some version of a “privacy notice” there recently. The idea is that posting it as your status will somehow prevent Facebook from, well, doing the things Facebook does with your information. It’s nonsense. Don’t be that person.

I’m astonished at how many people who ought to know better have fallen into this trap. It’s ridiculous magical thinking that repeating some incantation will save you from the big, bad government robots and others who want to do you harm.

You gave away your privacy rights the second you signed up for a Facebook account. If it’s really that big a deal to you, cancel your account and delete all the information therein. And wake up, and realize any time you’re not paying for something (and even sometimes when you are), you are the product that’s being sold – to advertisers and anyone else capable of paying the service provider for your information.

That goes for Facebook, that goes for Google, that goes for a lot of online services, and no legalese sounding bullshit you’ve posted to your wall is going to change that.