Very deeply, because it’s only by guarding it jealously and parcelling it up and then selling it to someone else that they can make any money. Why, did you think that hosting websites with millions of users was something they did for fun? Not at all – there are hefty hosting bills to pay but, more importantly, big profits potentially to be made.Thus this season’s poster child for social networking, Facebook, announced on its blog that in a few weeks, it will make parts of its 40 million users’ details, such as their names and pictures, available to the major search engines – Google, Yahoo! and MSN Live – and so visible to anyone online.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/13/guardianweeklytechnologysection.news1