Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress yesterday, and it was an embarrassment.

Not an embarrassment for him, but for us. Yes, I said it – all of us; stay with me for a moment. Humor me. Also consider that a class action lawsuit was just filed against Facebook “on behalf of” all US and UK users of Facebook, and it gets worse. Again, not for Zuck, but for us, the public.

Why, you ask? Let me walk you through it.

Unless you live under a rock, you know that Cambridge Analytica “misused” our data. They apparently used our data for more than we or Facebook had given them permission to use it for. Okay, if true, that’s a problem and a failure on the part of Facebook worthy of some consequence. However, rather than talking just about the data “breach” (or, perhaps, failure), all the headlines, stories, and discussions appear to be focused more so on what the data was used for. In this instance, allegedly, it was used to sway opinion about candidates to affect an election.

To that, I say, so what? You act as if you’re surprised. How can you possibly be surprised?

We’re angry that we used a free platform – one which we knew was free (in exchange for something – i.e. information about ourselves) and which we knew or should have known was being used for targeted advertising. If you didn’t know that, I question what exactly you thought the deal was. Did you think Zuck became a billionaire by magic? That people invested money in his company because they think it’s “neat”? No, they invested because they saw the profit potential of advertising. So, back to the facts.

In exchange for using this “free” platform, people answered surveys, typed-in details, posted pictures, and shared things, and, in the course of doing so, gave up relevant details about themselves. Someone then paid for that data (pursuant to the whole Facebook business model) and then analyzed it and used it to carefully craft messages, ads, whatever, to target people with those messages. Those messages supposedly swayed people to vote a certain way.

Uh, so, this has been going on for years in other formats, hasn’t it? Aren’t marketers always trying to target demographics? Aren’t ads always aimed at certain groups? Don’t politicians always focus on their base?

We seem to take no notice of it when advertisers do the same thing to convince us that Coca-Cola is better than Pepsi, or Burger King’s burgers are better than McDonald’s, yet now we’re angry? We’re angry because they did it for politics? Did everyone really rely entirely on what they read on Facebook and Facebook alone? Have people lost all ability to think for themselves? (Don’t answer that – I know what you’ll say, and it’s not flattering…to us). Seriously, though, this is the business model that has made billionaires out of people – that’s how it works.

So, back to the whole show that is the “let’s grill the Facebook CEO in front of the world to inquire about this supposed breach.” In all honesty, I think Zuck carried himself well – responded to questions, apologized (several times) and, took responsibility.

Here’s where it gets embarrassing. Did you listen to any of the questions he was asked? Seriously – many were the sort of questions that displayed such a complete lack of comprehension about Facebook, its business model, how it works, the real issue, and, it pains me to say this, the very concept of the technology. The questions demonstrated that we (through our elected officials) are in serious trouble. These are the folks making policy decisions for more than 320 million citizens of the United States – decisions that impact them and the rest of the world – and they couldn’t grasp this? Maybe you’d like to defend them and tell me that they have really intelligent people working for them who can brief them on these issues and help them understand so that they can then ask the right questions and make intelligent decisions. Sure – but, if that were the case, why in the heck did they not spend any time with those folks prior to yesterday’s public inquiry? If anything, the fact that Mr. Zuckerberg didn’t laugh out loud (or, “LOL”, in the vernacular) suggests he conducted himself even better than one might have expected he would do.

We can all be angry, or we can all learn from this. Beware of what you’re putting out there on those free platforms. Sure, the companies behind them should be held accountable for ensuring they meet with their own terms of service. Sure, they should take some level of responsibility and help police the content and notify authorities when illegal activity is being facilitated on their platform (the same way a shop owner would be responsible for reporting a crime on his premises to the police). But, let’s keep it within reason; some regulation is likely warranted, but, again, within reason.

I think what bothers me most about this is the fact that, elsewhere, recently, Equifax suffered a massive data breach and, though there was outrage, it seemed far less. Equifax – the company that holds sensitive financial data, that, by losing that data, enabled criminals and exposed millions of people to possible identity theft and real hardship. I never agreed to give Equifax my data. I never asked to be a customer of theirs. After that breach, their CEO left under a massive (roughly $90 million) golden parachute. Can we return to some more anger over this one, please?

Meanwhile, also related to all this hubbub is the class action lawsuit. I have been party to numerous of those and, despite all the attention given to this one, it’s likely to end the way most class action lawsuits end – with an appropriate resolution, compensation for the lead plaintiff(s), minor compensation, if any, for the class members, and a massive fee revenue for the lawyers filing it. In reality, they are the real winners here.

So, perhaps we can learn a few lessons from all this: (1) assume that everything you post on Facebook can and will be used (possibly against you); (2) demand better from your elected officials – seriously, for supposedly intelligent people, they didn’t look too impressive yesterday; (3) if you’re going to become a lawyer, perhaps a class action litigator might be a safe bet. I expect we’ll see more of these such breaches, and, likely, more outrage. Nevertheless, for this one, nothing to see here – thank you – move along.