“Follow the money” was good advice given to Woodward and Bernstein by Deep Throat back in the Watergate days, and if you want to understand why privacy lids are coming off, do the same thing – follow the money.

Facebook is the world’s largest social networking site. Depending on whose statistics you use, it’s either the most frequently visited site each day, or it’s number two behind Google, 400 million members strong.  YouTube, Yahoo and Live round out the top five.  Facebook is moving toward its initial public stock offering, and everything it can think of is being monetized.

If you visit the site, you’ve already seen those advertisements in the right side bar.  More of that is coming, and as it does, your privacy is going.

You know how you’re asked about allowing your profile to be accessed every time you want to take one of those silly “Quizzes” on Facebook, like “How Well Do You Know So-and-So”?  If your email address is listed in your profile, you’ve just been added to someone’s mailing list and can expect to be receiving marketing emails.

Privacy has long since disappeared, and on the Internet, and especially on Facebook, whatever thin veil you think might still exist is useless in hiding any of the good parts.  Notwithstanding Facebook’s published Privacy Guide, your info is not the least bit safe.

Money has everything to do with it.  Currency on the Internet is traffic, and in that sense, Facebook is a currency printing press. Eyeballs on the site in those numbers make the Googles of the world salivate.  Add to that the email addresses for e-newsletter marketing, and, well . . . you get the point.

And lest you think the toothpaste can be jammed back into the tube, try getting that embarrassing Facebook update off Facebook’s server, or out of Google’s cache.  The only option you have is to take comfort in the notion of once burned, twice shy, and vow never to put anything anywhere on the Internet you can’t live with forever.

But, it still comes down to money.  Privacy issues can stand in the way of monetization, and when that choice has to be made, the answer is clear.  Making money is not a bad thing, mind you.  The costs of maintaining sites like Facebook, Twitter and so many others is substantial, and business is business.  It’s why the sites and systems were developed in the first place.

Just be careful.  Forever is a long time.