The company also emphasized that you can opt out of ad targeting (though not advertising as a whole). It also insists that its social network is the product, not you -- it's the "ability to connect" that matters, Facebook said.

While these are important points and may help assuage the fears of those convinced Facebook is harvesting every ounce of personal data, it doesn't entirely address the concerns that prompted Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before Congress. The concern wasn't that Facebook was selling data, but that it didn't keep close tabs on what data apps could collect ("Thisisyourdigitallife" collected info about users' friends without consent) and didn't notify users when it discovered that the data had been compromised.

And while Facebook is refuting the notion that it's treating users as products, it's still true that Facebook's business model revolves around advertising -- with customized ads whenever possible. That's why ad targeting is opt-out rather than opt-in, after all. It might be difficult to completely escape privacy concerns so long as Facebook has reason to share something about you, even if it's something as simple as a page like.