Facebook overhauled their privacy policy yesterday in an effort to address widespread criticism. I didn't read it. I already left three weeks ago. Here's why.

There are plenty of posts floating around the blogosphere with approximately the same title as this one. At the time of writing, Google clocks over 300 million results for the phrase "why I left Facebook." I don't feel it necessary to link to any of them, but I will say that this Sunday is Quit Facebook Day and that it's easier than ever to Delete Facebook profiles.

Each of these deserters have their reasons, from concerns with privacy to wanting to reclaim wasted time, and it might seem like narcissism to throw my own log onto the fire... except that my story is a little different.

Why did you leave?

The morning of April 21st, as the keynote of Facebook's F8 conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had some exciting news. In front of an eager crowd of developers, he unveiled a new vision for the Internet. Facebook's "Open Graph" would make the web "social by default," with Facebook serving as a hub connecting social content like Yelp reviews or Pandora stations. Facebook would be the much yearned for key to unlock the rest of the web.

It was approximately this very moment that my sister's Facebook account was hacked.

Her contacts—all of her contacts—received an email saying she was stuck in England after a surprise vacation and needed money to get home. Family members, co-workers, ex-co-workers, ex-boyfriends... everyone got this message. Take a moment to think about who you're "friends" with on Facebook. Imagine them all getting scammed through your account.

She even witnessed the hacker chatting over Facebook with friends, responding to doubters that "lol of course its me".

Luckily, my sister uses correct spelling and punctuation, which twigged her friends and family to the ruse.

The hack spread to her Yahoo account, answering privacy questions that were now easy to find (hometown? mother's maiden? pet name?). My sister finally convinced the sluggish customer service to suspend her profile before any more damage could be done.

Admittedly, this story is an anecdote. It still paints a picture of the ramifications of an Internet with Facebook at the center. It wouldn't have to be Facebook, of course. Having any single key that opens all doors in your life, from your car to your bank account, is dangerous. It's just happens that Facebook is both well-positioned to be that key and have broadcast that very intention.

But Facebook is a business!

Yes, that's true. They need to make money to survive. I'm neither faulting them for that, nor saying that everything should be free on the Internet. It's a bad habit we've gotten into.

But FedEx is a business and they don't open your packages, see what you're sending, and then tell their strategic partners in order for them to better advertise to you. They could. Nothing's keeping them from changing their terms of service. If they did, they'd probably lose a lot of customers... and future customers would know what to expect and decide if it was worth it.

Since Facebook stores (but no longer "owns" thanks to past outrage) your content, our example doesn't quite hold. The hypothetical FedEx policy would mean they've retroactively looked at every package you've ever sent through them, not just after the policy change. Past customer decisions, made when privacy was intact, would no longer be valid and what was merely poor business with our mythical FedEx becomes a very real justice issue with our very real Facebook.

Why should others quit, too?

There's reason to believe that Facebook sees the need to address users' concerns about privacy, considering yesterday's announcement. Maybe they've wised up or maybe they're scared. Unfortunately, this is hardly the first time Facebook has launched a major change and then wheeled it back under pressure from their users.

Facebook is not going to stop leveraging its size and depth to pursue potential income. It's nothing personal; not trying to be dicks. They're just a business (see above). That's why we have to speak their language and deny them income. Make it hurt in a way they understand. There will be another Facebook and its creators (and investors) will need to learn the "Lesson of Facebook: Respect your users or they will leave."

Don't you do web strategy?

Yeah, it's funny right? I'm either being hypocritical by telling people they need to be on a site that I'm not on myself or irrelevant by warning them off the biggest site on the web. I'm comfortable with that. I'm also comfortable saying that having a multi-channel marketing strategy that includes a mission-relevant action your friends/fans/followers can take is far more important than just having a profile.

Let's not put the cart before the horse.