This article best represents the issue:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/facebooks-new-privacy-changes-good-bad-and-uglyI noticed the "ugly" myself and immediately deactivated my account, although not even I noticed the changes to the Facebook apps privacy settings discussed in the article above.
My horrified shocked reaction, personally, was because of the change to publicly post everybody's friends list to EVERYBODY ON THE INTERNET. According to the above article, there is a very difficult way to disable this. Before I deactivated my account I looked for over an hour for some way to do this, including searching Facebook help, Googling, you name it. I didn't find it and I am convinced it wasn't there when I looked and suspect it was only just added. Probably because of the rush of people like me to deactivate our accounts who cited the friends list issue as the reason for our deactivation.
Too little, too late. I have never been a big fan of Facebook, but saw some use in it and at least I could block the many apps, and features I didn't like. I've seen a gradual, and sometimes not so gradual, slide from Facebook's beginning exclusively within networks of universities, to its current commercial atrocity and enough is enough. I am pissed, Facebook has lost all credibility with me.
*Sigh* but I am also the primary web coordinator for the Biotech Law Group's Facebook page.... What am I supposed to do about that now? Maybe I'll have to resign, or maybe something can be worked out. At least there isn't anything planned until January.