For the sake of balance, here’s one last quick update, and after this, we promise to stop talking about Facebook for a while.

Some good insights, there, and don’t forget, it’s usually worth reading the user comments, too.

To sum up, the article makes the argument that Facebook, far from being chastened by the recent privacy backlash, knows exactly what it’s doing, and indeed is at worst encouraging and at best resigned to the controversy that always erupts whenever the site makes its very calculated changes to privacy settings. Bottom line: in order for it to succeed, Facebook needs to continuously challenge existing privacy conventions, and it’s this need that not only drives the regular (approximately every 18 months) s@#t-storm, but also the gradual adjustments in online attitudes toward privacy in general.

Will Facebook’s bet every 18 months that it can push the world to rethink privacy be the driver of the social web?

Anyway, enough already, it’s a good read, so go ahead and browse if you’re interested and, as promised, we’ll bow out for now.