Andrew Lane is the Director of Digital Engagement at Weber Shandwick, a proud member of the Toronto tech community, and a Notable Tech Expert. Follow his notable advice for young professionals on the best ways to keep up with the fast-paced tech world.

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk in the news and on social networks about Facebook’s “evil” privacy policy. Before you start worrying that Facebook is coming to take you down for your personal info – relax.  Take a deep breath.  Telling Facebook about yourself isn’t so bad.

Once a novelty known as the place where “the kids” could “poke,” Facebook has now become the latest iteration of Big Brother almost overnight. And it’s not a difficult comparison to make. Many would argue that Facebook is a bigger danger to us than Google because the type of information that Facebook retains is so much more intensely personal. So it’s no wonder that you’ve been seeing stories popping up everywhere from Mashable to the Globe and Mail about Facebook privacy, but please try to remember – it’s only the news. They’ll tell any story that they think people will read.

In response to this backlash, Facebook also has been working feverishly to make their privacy policy more transparent than ever.  The document that used to be longer than the US Constitution (seriously) has now been summarized to make it more palatable to users. In addition, they’ve recently gone to great lengths to simplify the process by which you can review and learn about your privacy. “Privacy Settings” is now a prominent menu item in the “Account” dropdown at the top right of your page.  Clearly, they’re working to help users understand the policy, and what they’re sharing – but that’s not enough for some.

Quit Facebook Day (officially May 31, 2010) was created, came and passed, confirming my suspicion that the issue isn’t as big as some would have you believe. As of the time of this writing, the official movement at QuitFacebookDay.com had amassed 36,559 committed quitters for their May 31 “event.” While that seems like a big number, compared to Facebook’s 450,000,000+ users, it amounts to less than 0.009 per cent of the overall population of Facebook Nation.

Perhaps the real reason this Facebook exodus failed was many realized that the data they were sharing was no more than they’ve given up to an email service, messenger service, or an online photo sharing tool. Because Facebook pulls this all together, it makes some people nervous. But do you really believe someone at the company is combing through 450,000,000 user’s photos and status updates looking to use that information for villainous purposes? Hardly. If anything, programming behind the scenes will be using it to suggest content and conversations to you you’re more likely to enjoy.

Throw in the fact that I’m sure you use Facebook to find out what’s going on this weekend, see the first pics of your new nephew, keep tabs on friends in other cities, kill time at work – or even as a part of your job – it’s pretty clear that the platform gives us a lot and asks very little in return. So don’t give up on Facebook so fast – when he takes good care of you, it’s not so bad having a Big Brother.