6 reasons I don’t need Facebook email.

I don’t want to be curmudgeonly about this, but I just don’t need Zuck’s tentacles wrapped around everything I say to other humans. You can break down my objections into 2 categories: utility and privacy.

Utility, or the lack thereof:

1. I already have 8 email addresses. I’m covered. My brain can hold no more permutations of my username/passwords.
2. Email is not an area wherein I need innovation. I’d do away with it entirely if it weren’t for business communication.
3. Facebook private messaging virtually is email, and it includes the ability to message people you aren’t friends with (so, slightly more useful than email, because I don’t need to know their address). The only thing it lacks is file attachments, which would be easy to incorporate without the new-interface-learning-curve Facebook users hate so much.

Privacy, or the seriousness of the potential lack thereof:

1. Email isn’t particularly social, as Google Buzz so dramatically underlined. I have Xobni and feel creepy enough as it is when I see people’s Facebook picture coming up in their email.
2. Let’s Google our memories for the numerous occasions where Facebook revealed private messages and photos, sent them to the wrong people, skywrote them over our hometowns, etc. Security, not their strong suit. Commitment to privacy, not their strong suit.
3. Do you want Facebook to read your email (necessary for the contextual advertising this is surely destined for)? I delete old private messages already, scared they’ll resurface in some future privacy debacle. I don’t want them to have my browsing history either, xo Rockmelt.