One element has me curious about how these benchmarks were prepared: Is the benchmark software compiled on the target platform/cpu combination with all available optimisations of that platform?

Many of these benchmarks have a binary/library or set thereof that is written for a single target platform (the platform the original developers of the benchmark were working on), Usually pre-compiled, usually for intel, on an intel system, by an intel compiler, with intel optimisations or at least two of the four. This same binary is then used against whatever systems on compatible architectures, this has the high potential to produce skewed results on non-intel platforms as not all manufacturers use the same optimisations.

While this specific processor may not be as great as it should have been, I feel that benchmarks in themselves are usually flawed and must be taken with a grain of salt until real-world software that isn't in a lab-style environment is attempted on it.

The privacy settings do not limit Facebook's own access to the data. Facebook can use the "magic" of the ToS to permit them to forward your data to anyone they please. As long as Facebook hosts the database, there's always the issue of them handing that data out.