Mark Zuckerberg's life is a lot less private these days, with a not too appealing portrait of him in the film "The Social Network" and an article in the New Yorker, among others.

All this attention at just 26 years of age, a net worth on paper estimated at $7 billion, and based on a site that has not quite managed to make turn all that potential into a money machine. Sure, Facebook has the customer base, and it became "free cash flow positive" last year, according to Zuckerberg. The money comes in automated advertising and those users who don't mind paying for virtual gifts to give their Facebook "friends".

But making money, at least in the short term, does not seem to be the main drive for Zuckerberg, although those who have invested up to hundreds of millions of dollars in Facebook hope it will be, at some point.

He has nixed offers from MTV, Microsoft and finally Yahoo, which topped all others with $1 billion. Zuckerberg has instead taken in investments, whittling down his stake to an estimated 24% of the company.

"It's not about price. This is my baby, and I want to keep running it. I want to keep growing it," he told Yahoo executives in turning down their offer, according to New Yorker writer Jose Antonio Vargas, in his 20 September article "The Face of Facebook".

The impression you get in the many descriptions of the movie and in the article is of a young man with a lot of drive and a will to create his vision of getting people communicating in a virtual community on the internet. That drive was a rollercoaster over other people's ambitions. While one can dismiss the movie as fictional, it's harder to counter some of the claims made in the New Yorker article.

These focus on some of his instant messages held as part of a suit Facebook settled with three of his former colleagues from Harvard, who accused him of stealing their idea for a similar service. They have now appealed the settlement, claiming they were misled about the initial value of the shares received.

Who cares if, some of those instant messages show Zuckerberg as "backstabbing, conniving, and insensitive", according to an unnamed source quoted in the New Yorker? What the leaked bits quoted in the New Yorker indicate is further fuel to those concerned about Facebook's treatment of personal information and data.

They show Zuckerberg's early contempt for other's privacy as he gets early versions of Facebook off the ground at Harvard and then outwards. In one of the two messages quoted by the magazine Zuckerberg offers to share information "about anyone at harvard" with a friend. "i have over 4000 email, pictures, addresses, sns," he writes.

The friend asks how he managed to collect all of the information. Zuckerberg replies he doesn't know why people submitted the information to the network. "They 'trust me'," he guesses, then adds "dumb [expletive]".

Zuckerberg describes these statements as immature indiscretions, ones he now "regrets", and that is probably true. But there is no doubt that the suggestion he is casual with personal information and that somehow Facebook will betray its users is a huge concern. The site has amended its privacy policy numerous times as it seeks to use all of that data to create a profitable business and assuage concerns.

A Facebook change in policy, how users share information and how the site mines that data, is big news any time it happens. The danger lies is whether Facebook eventually makes a mistake that causes users to run in hordes for the next competitor.

Facebook does have the critical mass to keep going. Networking has a snowball effect. Once your friends are on Facebook, you have to join to remain part of the group, at least online. But if they start leaving because of fears over privacy, and a small but vocal number have, then the snowball could melt just as fast.

So has Facebook gotten privacy close to right in its latest revision of the terms on 22 April 2010? Certainly, Facebook has given users lots of ways to adjust their privacy settings, allowing you to manage who sees what with a greater degree of control. If you go on www.allfacebook.com you can read a 10-point guide by Nick O'Neill on how to adjust those settings.

Once you limit what the world and others on your Facebook page can see, you should now turn to Facebook itself. Data mining, as the use of personal information is called, is necessary for advertising. Google uses search habits and basic location to serve up advertising. Facebook wants to do the same but with so much more information available from users, it becomes more intrusive.

For example, some might consider as intrusive section five of the privacy policy, which notes Facebook may use "information about you that we collect from other Facebook users to supplement your profile (such as when you are tagged in a photo or mentioned in a status update)". Facebook does give you the ability to remove the info from this useful feature, but it is still worrying that your links and interactions with others are being noted.

With the introduction of more services, like Facebook Places, which allows the sharing of a user's location, the privacy issue is becoming more difficult to balance.

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