Security → Facebook's Identity-Theft-Enabling Business Model

I don't use Facebook and never have, yet my first-hand experience made me feel Facebook's business model is pernicious. I had to jump through hoops to get my impersonator's profile removed from Facebook. I discovered the impersonator in June 2011 via Google Alerts; otherwise it would have gone undetected by me.

Facebook required me to fill out a form and provide the fake profile's URL -- which I had only thanks to Google Alerts. (People not on Facebook who don't use Google Alerts may be the victim of identity theft without even knowing about it.) Then I had to provide a scan of a government issued photo I.D., information I didn't want to provide, but the potential consequences of a malicious use of my profile made reluctant compliance seem the lesser of two evils. I felt as if I were the victim of tag-team malware.

Facebook's lack of controls enabled this fraud. Meanwhile Facebook may have reported the fraudulent profile as a "user," and after the fraud was found out by me, Facebook extracted valuable information from me. I'm not saying Facebook was the original source of the fraudulent profile only that it can benefit from the existence of it. Anyone, including Facebook, could have been the source. Facebook potentially benefits from identity theft both by counting fake users as real, and then when a victim tries to get the fake removed, by getting more valuable information that it can sell.

But Facebook's business model is even more perverse if you are a Facebook user and a victim of identity theft on Facebook...

If you delete your Facebook account, there appears to be nothing to prevent an impersonator from creating a new fraudulent profile that appears to be you. I recommend every regulator read Tynan's article: "Facebook's Crazy Catch 22: How Imposter's Can Assume Your Identity and Run Wild."

Later, in its 10Q filing for the period ending June 30, 2012, Facebook "estimated" 8.7 percent fakes on a then reported even higher user base. This updated estimate also appears much too low to me. Based on my unscientific survey of 50 U.S. Facebook users and further publicly reported anecdotal evidence, Facebook's prospectus's representation of fakes may be off by a factor of ten.