I thought mine was mine not yours?

I read an interesting article, What's Mine Isn't Yours, the other day, and it gave me a chance to rethink about who controls my data. Should it be Facebook? Google? Or me?

This article reminded me of what my friend told me a while ago. My friend decided to quit using Facebook because using Facebook is addicting and time-consuming. However, he regreted doing so after a few years, and he decided to come back. To his surprise, he did not have to rebuild anything on his page. Everything was just like how it used to be when he quit. What does this mean? No matter what we do, our info, our pictures, and our friend list are always there. Just like this article said, "Facebook, in other words, is a Roach Motel for your social graph- your data checks in, but unless Mark Zuckerberg approves it, it can never leave."

Keeping all the users' data can be viewed as saving our time to rebuild everything when we accidentally delete all our information or when someone wants to come back to Facebook. But what about my email address and my friends'?

I think Google did a good job informing its users of how we will never be able to erase anything that we import to Facebook today. Many people might be aware of the consequences already, but others like me would never know if no one tells us. Although Google is being criticized of its intention by doing so, I view such action as protecting users' rights of their data.