"As a practical matter, Facebook already pays us for the information we entrust to them: they have to provide a good, enjoyable service. If they don't, we will quit updating our information and quit visiting their site. But I see where you're going with this: if Facebook was under contractual obligation to treat our information as confidential (haha!), then the government couldn't make the third-party holder, non-confidential argument to get access to our information without a court order. Interesting idea, though I don't think I agree with your implication that this confidentiality agreement would need to be supported by monetary compensation from Facebook to its users. There is other valuable consideration that could support the agreement, such as Facebook promising to store our information and make it available to those whom we friend." - Brent Logan