When you're signing up to a Facebook account, the terms of use ( http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms ) state, in §18(1), that:

> If you are a resident of or have your principal place of business in the US or Canada, this Statement is an agreement between you and Facebook, Inc. Otherwise, this Statement is an agreement between you and Facebook Ireland Limited. References to “us,” “we,” and “our” mean either Facebook, Inc. or Facebook Ireland Limited, as appropriate.

So if you're in the USA or Canada, you've a contract with a US company, else, you have a contract with an Irish company, that then has to work under EU Data Protection Laws.

But why would Facebook do this? Why not just tell everyone that they have a contract with the US company, and then you don't have to be audited by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (as they recently were). Why would they put themselves through that?

(And yes, the corporate tax rate in Ireland is 12½%, but that doesn't mean that end users need to have a contract with Facebook Ireland Ltd.)