The vast majority of FB's "security risk" is derived from the composite the USER gives them (or, perhaps, your smartphone's contact roster). Employment, colleges, circle of friends ...the various & sundry dribbles of info -when made available for assembly, even crude algorithmic assembly- that's where the risk lies. To keep from hurting anyone's feelings, you may need to explain to your family ahead of time that this is a special account and you won't be friending anyone.

Do this from a desktop, NOT your smartphone. There has been some authoritative speculation that FB reads your phone's contact files. I also gave them a Google Voice phone number that I don't really use. I did give them my correct age, gender, and email address.

I used this tutorial to do the original gutting of the account
http://www.komando.com/tips/12299/step-by-step-guide-to-lock-down-your-facebook-profile/all

Being unfamiliar with the menu layout, it took me about 45 mins to dig down and turn off all that crap.

I then let the account sit for about 3 months to see if there were any noticeable upticks in email spam. Nothing happened.

So then I went in and joined a group of about 1200 members. Nothing happened.

So then I went in and joined a newly forming group which was forking from the larger group. Nothing happened.

Lately, I've purposely been clicking through on some individual members' pages. FB weakly tries the "you may know" stuff, but they seem to have even given up on that lately.

>stick with a forum

Agreed. But the problem is demographics. IF you want younger members to be active and grow the user base, you're going to have to go FB. They literally scream when you try to make them use a forum format, hhh. I'm certain that this is largely a smartphone access issue, but the ease and ubiquity of FB apps --*particularly* photo-handling-- gives FB a huge edge in member recruitment.

>upload of contacts

This is why I think a throwaway G voice number is crucial.

>who's tracking

It's the lack of re-targeting that puzzles me the most. (I used my public email address in the profile, btw.) Yes, my laptop browser defenses may be formidable but I purposely surf FB and other sites with an anemically fortified chrome browser on the ipad2. I use a fair number of sites (tools, home hardware) that are notoriously good re-targeters, imo, and I'm not seeing them. That 1200+ group (auto maintenance) should be a natural for re-targeting if only based on the group's focus.

>age, gender

Maybe they don't want old men, heh.