Bears Vastly Overstate This Risk to Facebook

Say goodbye to democracy. Last week, less than 1% of Facebook's active user base voted on privacy changes that grant the social network more control over data hosted at the site.

The numbers are startling. Of the roughly 1 billion eligible, only 589,141 voted against the proposed changes while 79,731 voted in favor. At least 300 million had to participate for the vote to count. So much for an engaged user base.

Or maybe there's more at work here. Maybe, as consumers of social media, we don't care about privacy nearly as much as the headlines suggest. Maybe it's time we stopped counting the possibility of a data breach as a risk when it comes to evaluating the attractiveness of Facebook, Google , LinkedIn , and others.

Think that's crazy? In the following video, Fool contributor Tim Beyers explains why none of these stocks has endured long-lasting pain at the hands of a privacy miscue.

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The article Bears Vastly Overstate This Risk to Facebook originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the Motley Fool Rule Breakersstock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Google at the time of publication. Check out Tim's Web home and portfolio holdings, or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.The Motley Fool owns shares of Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook and has bought calls on Facebook. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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