I’ve been watching the uproar over Facebook with a fair amount of bemusement.

Yes, I am on Facebook and have been there for awhile, however, from the beginning I have been careful what information I placed there. If you could find it by doing a public search of my name, I was OK placing on Facebook, otherwise, for get it. So my address and phone number have never been on listed, and the only e-mail addresses are my work address (which you can find it you search my name) and my address I give out to businesses and such. And neither of those was ever public. (Go ahead. Search for me on Facebook. See what you find.)

Yes, I probably do know a bit more about online privacy than most people, but it seems to me that not placing your phone number and address on a free website is a reasonable thing to do. If someone needs that information, they can e-mail me (or search for my work number–that’s out in the wild as well.)

But that’s where we get to the part I don’t quite get.

Facebook is a FREE service. It provides you with e-mail and a place to post pictures and an easy way to stay in contact with family and friends–all at absolutely NO COST TO THE USER!

Why on earth are people offended when a free service does things to make money? It’s not like there is a legal requirement that you use Facebook, it’s not like you are required to post your address or phone number, or give them anything more than a throw away e-mail address (OK, yes it was different in the beginning, when you need to have an edu account, but that’s essentially a public address.)

TANSTAAFL people!

Believe it or not, the internet costs money! Facebook (and Google and Yahoo and everyone else) has to pay money for the hardware upon which their content sits. And the busier your site, and the more content you have, the more expensive the underlying architecture.

For example, it costs me about $100 a year for hosting for this site. That’s about what I’ve been paying since Michael bought me my domain for Christmas a really long time ago (and I’ve used a variety of hosting services over time.)

Because I pay for this site, I expect certain things in return, such as prompt customer service, privacy, and the ability to do as I please (within reason) with my site.

I do not have the same expectations about Facebook. They are providing something for free, so I expect that they will want something in return, in this case, advertising.

You get what you pay for, and if the dollar amount you pay is free, then you’re going to have to expect to pay the price in some other way.

Would I pay if Facebook changed to a pay service? It depends upon how much they charged and whether those I keep in touch with remained on Facebook.

In many ways, I really like Facebook–I like a semi-secure place where I can keep track of a variety of friends and control to some degree what information is available to those who are not my friends. I love regaining contact with people I haven’t seen in years–yes, there are people who I don’t care as much about, but I can hide their status updates if they post things that annoy me, so it all comes out in the wash.

So yes, I would be willing to pay a small amount for Facebook; less than I pay to host my own site though–I don’t love it that much.

And that is what I think people need to keep in mind when they get all up in arms about the way Facebook or any other free service treats their information: You have recognize you’re going to pay the price in one way or another. Realize this, and privacy concerns really shouldn’t be an issue.