It's not directly Facebook's fault, except where they've been completely negligent about what goes on on their servers. Most Facebook apps are developed by third parties that can basically hijack the service for whatever dubious purposes they like, as evidenced by the plague of Facebook app viruses that spread thanks to people's tendency to click on anything that looks vaguely like a picture of boobs.
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"Tits? Hell yeah I'll let you have access to my hard drive."
Now, here's the good news. Facebook doesn't think that any of the third-party sites actually took advantage of this hole when it was open. But that doesn't mean advertisers and app developers don't love spying on you. Facebook's privacy policy does forbid any app from sending user data to third parties, but The Wall Street Journal conducted a study at the end of 2010 which showed that 10 out of 10 of the top Facebook apps were in violation. Those apps sent off user ID data on millions of users to "outside companies," which means millions of people found their names, app preferences and friend lists leaked out to admen.
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"Can you believe Bill is flirting with Jane and Sarah? Let's try to sell penis enlargers to all of them."
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