Facebook CEO admits mistakes, promises simpler privacy controls

SAN FRANCISCO
— The world’s most popular social networking site will roll out new
settings to make it simpler and easier for users to control their
personal information, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Monday.

Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook “missed the mark”
with features that drew scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators and privacy
watchdogs. Details of the new settings were revealed in an opinion
piece in the Washington Post. Washington Post Chairman Donald E. Graham is a member of Facebook’s board of directors.

Zuckerberg did not say when the new settings would
be in place, just that Facebook is “working hard to make these changes
available as soon as possible.” One of the settings will make it easy
to turn off all third-party services, he wrote.

“Facebook has been growing quickly. It has become a
community of more than 400 million people in just a few years. It’s a
challenge to keep that many people satisfied over time, so we move
quickly to serve that community with new ways to connect with the
social Web and each other,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Sometimes we move too
fast—and after listening to recent concerns, we’re responding.”

Technology blogger Robert Scoble also posted with permission an e-mail exchange with Zuckerberg in which
the Facebook CEO acknowledged: “We’ve made a bunch of mistakes.”

Whether that admission will appease a small but
vocal group of disgruntled Facebook users who have pledged to quit the
social network remains to be seen. The publicity stunt has not gotten
much traction. Fewer than 15,000 users have committed to deleting their
Facebook account on May 31 at QuitFacebookDay.

Some say that threatening to quit or boycott
Facebook is futile. But helping family and friends understand their
privacy settings and challenging Facebook to adhere to a higher
standard could make a difference.

Posted Danah Boyd: “Facebook has
embedded itself pretty deeply into the ecosystem, into the hearts and
minds of average people. They love the technology, but they’re not
necessarily prepared for where the company is taking them. And while
I’m all in favor of giving users the choice to embrace the
opportunities and potential of being highly visible, of being a part of
a transparent society, I’m not OK with throwing them off the boat just
to see if they can swim.”

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