I got a great model for Facebook. Pay for privacy. You pay for privacy and they won't give your personal information out to anyone without a judicial warrant and will let you permanently delete information you post that you'd rather no one else see. Another privilege is to let you have multiple accounts under pseudonyms.
However, offering these features is likely to cause damage to the naive belief that Facebook is actually private.
What if surveillance/intelligence is the business model? If Facebook generates $10bil/yr of surveillance value, that justifies a $100bil valuation. A lot more than $10bil/yr is spent on US intel/surveillance, and Facebook is the best intel tool ever created. The Onion's satire on is uncomfortable because it hits home too accurately: http://www.theonion.com/video/cias-facebook-program-dramatic...
Privacy is available, right now, for free. The cost, if there is one, is getting all your friends to stop using a single website started run by a sociopath who does not believe in the idea of privacy and start using an open source peer to peer solution that is not controlled by any single person or entity.
Agreed - I am also fully anti TV. I just got cable again last week as I moved and my wife really wanted it. I have not had cable TV service for 9 years.
Previously I taught her how to watch everything she wanted online.
As someone who has been on a computer daily since 3rd grade (I am 37 years old) - websites are simply the new channels we debate over liking (no pun intended).
However, offering these features is likely to cause damage to the naive belief that Facebook is actually private.