At 7:23pm last night (old news, FB-time), Facebook founder Mark Zuckerman posted an open letter to all users, informing us that the FB management plans to "build a better system" for privacy control. Except building, in this case, essentially means eliminating regional networks like "Santa Fe" or "Los Angeles"—and that has the not-usually-libertarian folks at Gawker more than a little worried.

Here's Zuckerberg:

The plan we've come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.

And Gawker blogger Ryan Tate, who does admit his theory has an element of "shameless, cynical speculation":

Facebook wants people to share their content with everyone, like on rival hot-startup Twitter, but most people are content just sharing with their regional networks. So why not kill the regionals and push users to share with the world by default?

Zuckerberg again:

We'll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you're sharing with online.

Now Tate:

Read: If you're sharing with your regional network, we'll probably suggest you share with the world.

As mentioned in the NM Independent's awesome IPRA (Inspection of Public Records Act) seminar last night, we've all got to know that, privacy settings aside, most of what we put online—and especially on Gmail—is visible to someone. (Here's a fun quiz, via the ACLU, to learn how much FB knows about you.)

The response to Zuckerman's missive is varied; a lot of people used the still-nonexistent "dislike button" (in the form of a comment), but another 21,802 and counting gave it a thumbs-up. We'll see what happens.