TK has been promoting itself heavily in the US and many people I know that would have taken EK, have switched to Turkish. They have been doing a good job at offering reasonable fares and for many destinations have betters connections than EK from the US.

As for privacy issues, they don't exist for individual citizens...only for the governments that want to control the inhabitants within its borders. Unfortunately, the UAE has been moving further and further into the "people here have no privacy" realm as witnessed by the blocking of skype, Blackberry restrictions that quietly went into effect as of yesterday, and many other political measures currently underway.

Hopefully EK and other airlines in the region can be more encouraging of social media as it becomes a more and more popular tool in the region and the world, though honestly I would see it happening with TK and even MS before EK/EY ever embrace it.