The internet is all aflutter today over the story from the Wall Street Journal that Facebook apps have been passing personal data on to advertisers.

I wish I could care.  I really do.  But here’s the sad reality that everyone keeps forgetting:

Facebook costs you NOTHING!  It is FREE!  How else do you expect them to make money?

My dad taught me a very important lesson that nothing in life is free.

Yet it seems like everyone has assumed that they can use an online system which has millions of dollars of technical development, equipment, staff and other services required to make it  run and never pay a penny for sucking up that bandwidth.  I’ve got news for you….. Facebook never has-been and never-will be a not-for-profit company.  Otherwise investors wouldn’t be lining up and pouring their venture capital into these companies (keep in mind the expected return for a venture capitalist is 300%).

Facebook and other companies like it have to make money in order to justify the investment.

So for everyone that doesn’t want Facebook (or any other free social network for that matter) to share their personal information with advertisers, there’s only one thing to do…. delete your Facebook account.

Or, spend a few minutes to lock down your privacy settings and be comfortable having that information on the internet.

Because in the end, by keeping in touch with friends, sharing photos and videos with family and keeping tabs on your favorite activities, you are getting a much bigger return on your investment in Facebook than the investors will get.

Rant over.  I’ll go back to living online.