The social-networking giant's vast customer base - the equivalent of the world's third-biggest country, by population - freely shares personal information, which has reset the way many communicate and how advertisers reach them.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is betting that there's almost no limit to what people will share and to how his company can benefit from it.

"Our incentive is to give people the exact controls they want, so they can share the most information,'' he says. "More and more people want to share information. That is where the world is going.''

But can too much information be too much of a good thing? Social-networking sites - Facebook, in particular - face heightened scrutiny over their privacy policies from consumers, privacy advocates and legislators.

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Some lawmakers are readying legislation to regulate websites' tactics for collecting information about consumers, and the way that information is used to target ads.

More: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/the-hub/at-facebook-its-privacy-versus-profit/story-fn5iagph-1225880763564?from=the+hub_rss