>> The thing that so many people fail to realize is that the data isn't valuable in and of itself.
It is valuable to the company you're giving it to since they get paid by the advertising. They also get money from their partners who we so graciously agree to allow them to "share" it with which happens to be for profit for them.
>> The data is a means to an end, which is showing you relevant ads. >> If everyone stopped using Facebook tomorrow, the value of all the information Facebook has gathered would be negligible.
They can still sell your information to whomever they want which means even in your scenario they would still be making tons of money, I'm guessing here, hundreds of millions IMHO. So your arguments are not correct.