[ddlatham]

The problem is FBIDs are not independent of your social network provider, in this case, Facebook.

If I want to take my social data from Provider A, I want it in an independent format, so that I can do whatever I want with it. So that I can back it up, and later import it to some other Provider. If there were some social networking standard for friends list independent of any provider, then great, use that, and skip the private email addresses. For now, email addresses are the best online standard for identifying my friends, independent of social network Provider. Names, or FBIDs are not.