Clark Howard: Would you pay to keep your information private on Facebook?

Jacksonville, FL. — As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces another round of tough questions following his company’s data sharing controversy, Consumer Warrior Clark Howard is weighing in on how much it would cost the average Facebook user to keep their information private.

Clark says Facebook has published a draft of its new policy, calling it a trial balloon as the social media giant tries to figure out how much they are going to give you the ability to restrict your information in return for regaining the public’s trust. At the same time, the company still has to make money.

According to the blog called “The Switch,” Clark says it Facebook users would have to pay an estimate of $80 a year to keep their personal information safe.

"Then they (Facebook) will be able to replace the income they would have made by leaving your settings as they are now," Clark says.

That number is interesting to Clark because if one thinks about the apps they use to save money while shopping, they are collecting information on that person all through that promise. Clark says you are trading your privacy in return for getting a lower price.

"Google giving away all the services they do for free, they're doing it in trade for the information they're able to collect on you and feed you ads based on that information."

Clark says the question is people want to be able to use these things but are they willing to pay to keep their information completely private online.

"Yeah we want our privacy, we'll pay for what we get from Facebook, Google, Apple or whoever. Or we don't want to pay and you do with the information what you wish."

To Clark, that option gives the user the ability to make choices to say Facebook has no right to make money from having this tool out there that many people find useful. He says that’s not right either because they are running a charity.