I can see why people would be concerned about privacy. However, I can't believe in two years' time FB didn't correct the situation well enough to not have to discontinue the Sponsored Stories. I thought they were/are at least until April 9th of this year a very useful way to get natural FB engagement. You think? But at least G+ is doing it now -- been waiting for that and hope they do a better job at it than Facebook.
Yeah, it's kind of a bummer, but there are still other ways that work even better than sponsored stories for me (ie just the plain ads on the right bar are still converting really well)