Thanks to the Google employee ring for voting this one up too, I found that the 5 breathless Facebook articles already on the front page weren't sufficiently satisfying my intellectual curiosity. Now you may proceed to transition into downvote mode.
I really hope one day pg changes it so that all votes on articles and comments are publicly available, so that we can run our own analysis' using it. It would be interesting to see how much of the content on HN has become dominated by these employee rings over time.
I voted it up and have nothing to do with Google; not being employed there, never being employed there, and holding no shares.
I also have only a passing curiosity of a desire to work for Google, no more or less than Facebook, Apple, Microsoft or any other large tech company.
However, I find it disconcerting how ALL companies seem to be edging towards creating and storing a mass of data about individuals without disclosing the entire purpose, what is held, or how to access it.
With that in mind, this is a great article/link. The Data Protection laws in Europe are wonderful, and they're there for a good reason (remember that Europe has been host to things like the Stasi).
We value our privacy, and we value our right to know what data companies hold about us.
So please step down from your soap box and ask yourself: Is there a real problem that resonates here? Is there a reason X stories are all on the front page at once?
It's nothing to do with employees waging a PR war or anything as petty... it's because even amongst very technical people there is a lot of concern about the direction things are going in, and Facebook (and sometimes Apple recently, though Google might trump them soon with Google Wallet) seem to be at the very front line of it.
If you're so out of the loop that you didn't know about f8 and 'frictionless sharing' then read up about those things and viola, you'll realize why these stories are all popping up the rankings.
Plus it's pretty clear Facebook itself needs to make a distinction between something like a "export application" (that does generate nothing-like-spam) and something like Farmville (which is only generates something-like-spam).
While this lack of distinction is a serious problem for Facebook ... it hardly qualifies as a good argument for Facebook being able to export from everyone else but not allowing exports to anyone.
I really hope one day pg changes it so that all votes on articles and comments are publicly available, so that we can run our own analysis' using it. It would be interesting to see how much of the content on HN has become dominated by these employee rings over time.