Will I agree that the article is sensationalizing, but if history is any indication, Facebook can & will use all this data against your wishes.
Facebook is limited to what its privacy policy and TOU allow. If Facebook goes beyond that, the FTC, state attorneys general, and a bevy of bottom-feeding class action lawyers will sue (and win).
Anyone who doesn't understand this -- this is directed at the author of the blog post that started this thread, not the parent post -- has no business writing about privacy.
That's an utopian interpretation of how corporations work. Most of them have a motto : "It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission"
Proof : A lot of genuine lawsuits...
Not quite. The "genuine lawsuits you mention are proof only that (a) bottom-feeding lawyers file meritless lawsuits in hopes of a fat $$$ settlement, or (b) that sometimes even well-intentioned companies make mistakes and do things beyond what their privacy policy and TOU permit.
I've had the official facebook application installed for months and they never read the SMS messages.