Last week, Facebook formally announced that it was making millions of personal profiles accessible to the public via major search engines. As far as I can tell, Facebook members who never intended or expected to be listed this way were suddenly opted-in to Facebook's new plan. I say "as far as I can tell" because despite several attempts over the past week, Facebook has failed to provide me with any official answers. Below, some of the key questions I put to the service about the profile move and member privacy issues, along with answers as best I can determine on my own.

To reduce the hype factor, practically no private data is being released. Instead, it's the shift to an opt-out model that I find the real story here. And for more background on the new profile listings, be sure to read my Facebook Opens Profiles To Tap Into Google Traffic article from last week.

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