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At the end of the day, what you do, where you do it, and what you share is purely personal choice... one that you are ultimately responsible for in the long run.

That said equating what someone posts on this forum vs. Facebook is quite a different argument... sure if someone (say "Big Brother") is interested, they may have the resources to know about it, but this is far cry from Facebook who evaluates/relates all the data provided. Mapping your profile to other users, using facial recognition software to identify you in every photo posted, grabbing your GPS data from your phone, uploading all of your smartphones contacts to their servers, or changing your profiles e-mail address without permission... it never really ends, and no matter what you do, any data provided to them will never be deleted.

But its like anything else... some people are comfortable with using G-mail as their email provider too (who's user agreement allows them full access to read your e-mail). Could other providers be reading your e-mail? Possibly... but you probably didn't explicitly sign that away at any rate.

Most everything on the internet is based on some form of trust (even/especially at the core infrastructure level... read up on how the Chinese "accidentally" routed U.S. internet traffic to servers in that country)... how much and who you give that trust to is up to you.

Having followed the development of such things over the years, Facebook is a very interesting case...

On the surface is seemed to explode in popularity by chance (considering the ideal what certainly not new), but underneath I often classify it as the greatest "Social Engineering" experiment every conducted. Why? Well if you think about it, if a stranger off the street (or "Big Brother") came to your door, and started asking you personal questions... who you are, what are your activities, who you friends are, etc... you would most certainly go tell them to fly a kite (it not so kind words). Certainly, demanding people to hand over information makes them very suspicious/combative... and that is a well understood issue... so rather then fight it, it is far easier to give them a venue to "share"... suddenly they are handing over the same information willingly (particularly since narcissism has exploded in recent years)

This of course makes it a paradise for the criminals and the government... both of which partake themselves in Facebook data regularly... and if you really think about it, what seems to be harmless information on the surface isn't so harmless if you put your mind to it. The most basic example... think about the "security" questions your bank and other important establishments use... "pets name", "favorite color", "city you grew up in", etc... then think about how much of that is potentially exposed from your profiles, pictures, list of friends etc.

"Oh but I use these here privacy controls!" Sorry... Facebook is in the business of making money (particularly after they went public with their IPO), and what is it they have that is worth money? You data of course. You might be shocked how much that data has been sold/resold (more times then you can count)... because that is where the money is at, and compared to your privacy, money is far more important. Of course notwithstanding Facebook does not have the greatest track record for security either...

Anywho you don't have take my word for it... security experts classify it as their worst nightmare, and "alphabet soup agencies" think it is the best thing since sliced bread... just ask them sometime