[lucasoman]

People don't comprehend how insecure the Internet is. They take for granted that their information will remain private unless they explicitly wish to share it publicly. This may be naive, but ideally this is how things ought to be.

The reason these issues have been at the forefront lately is that mainstream media has picked up the story. Facebook has, to use a cliche, reached critical mass. Everyone and their dog has a Facebook profile, so when something involves Facebook, even if it's a slightly more technical topic than usual, people are interested and want to understand.

Combined with other coincidental events, like Google being compromised by Chinese hackers, and people start thinking about it.