As the privacy issue gets more heated on the Internet, it appears activists and activist/programmers are employing some drastic measures to get people to start paying attention, and they’re targeting Facebook.

According to a story on PRI.org,

One programmer recently released personal information about 100 million Facebook users to the internet in an open, searchable format.

And,

Other similar efforts have included Openbook, a website that allows users to search for unprotected status updates. Programmers have also created Facebook privacy scanners that allow people to monitor how much information they’re releasing online.

Privacy activists blame FB for making their privacy settings too complicated for most users to properly utilize. They also claim FB is more interested in serving advertising to users than it is in protecting users’ interests.

But Facebook, in a statement to the BBC, said its users own their information and have the right to share “what they want, with whom they want, and when they want.”

At the end of the day, it’s the individuals who are posting the information who have the ultimate control over what they want to share, but there’s no easy way to get around those bad decisions that people inevitably make.