San Francisco — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg acknowledges that the social networking service has made blunders, and that it is considering to carry-out sweeping changes to its privacy settings in a bid to pacify criticism from users and regulators that the current controls are too complex.
The social network’s Zuckerberg published a acknowledgment in an email exchange on just the last weekend along with popular technology blogger Robert Scoble, who shared it at his website after purportedly getting Zuckerberg’s permission, which stated that number of users had complained Facebook had “made things too complex.”
“We are working on responding to these concerns. Watch this space,” a Facebook statement said.
“We have spent the last couple of weeks focusing on users and consulting with experts in California; Washington, DC, and around the world,” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in response to an AFP inquiry.
“These communications that we have received are reasonably clear. Users considers having accurate and comprehensive controls, but want them to be simpler and easier to use.”
The social networking site will probably institute a “master control” to simplify privacy choices for users, allowing them to distribute content among three broad categories, such as everyone, friends of friends or just friends.
Facebook executives briefed Simon Davies, of Privacy International, the UK-based political entity, over its planned modifications last week, following widespread criticism that its privacy settings are not tight enough.
“I want to make certain we get this matter right this time,” said a message attributed to Zuckerberg.
“I know we have made a couple of blunders lately, but my expectation at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that our intentions are in the right place and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve,” the message read.
Facebook has been facing criticism from both government organizations and users for the changes that were made towards the end of last year. The features initiated last month include the ability for partner websites to incorporate Facebook data, a move that would further spread out the social network’s presence on the internet.
Four US senators, in a letter to Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, said they were deeply disturbed that personal information about Facebook users is being made available to third party websites.
The senators also verbalized their apprehension that “Facebook now obligates users to make publicly available certain parts of their profile that were previously private”.
Distributing personal information should be an opt-in operation in which a user specifically gives permission for data to be shared, privacy advocates argue.
Facebook vice president of global communications Elliot Schrage has been resolute that online privacy is taken very seriously at the company.
“These new products and features are designed to enhance personalization and promote social activity across the internet while continuing to give users unprecedented control over what information they share, when they want to share it, and with whom,” Schrage said.
Troubled History:
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2004: As Facebook grows in popularity at Harvard, fellow students sue Zuckerberg, claiming he copied ideas and code from their social networking site ConnectU.
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2006: With nearly 10 million users, Facebook launches a “news feed” application displaying users’ recent activity on their friends’ home pages. Members campaign against the “invasive” feature, prompting Zuckerberg to publish an apology and introduce privacy options to allow users to decide what is shown.
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2007: Six major firms, including Vodafone and Virgin Media, withdraw adverts from the site after their ads appear on pages for groups linked to the BNP.
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2008: Campaigners call on Facebook and other social networking sites to clamp down on pro-anorexia groups after experts say that such groups have played a significant part in young people developing eating disorders.
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2009: Accused of being a tool for cyberbullying and cyberstalking after users are attacked by people they met on the site. Teenager Keeley Houghton becomes the first person in Britain jailed for posting death threats on the site.
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2010: After the number of complaints alleging grooming and bullying on the site quadruple, British police accuse Facebook of “arrogantly” ignoring children’s safety. The site is blocked in Pakistan after a contest entitled “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” provoked street demonstrations. The decision to open Facebook data to third-party websites drew widespread criticism, including a letter from the European commission.
Zuckerberg, who turned 26 years old on May 14, said Facebook would start talking publicly this week about privacy control modifications.
“We have been reviewing all the response we have received and have been trying to distill it down to the key things we need to improve,” Zuckerberg wrote.
“We are going to be ready to start talking about some of the new things we have developed this week.”
Most users are still not aware as how to set their Facebook privacy options safely, finding the entire system confusing. What is needed is a significant shift towards asking users to “opt-in” to sharing information, rather than to “opt-out”.
The recent changes have resulted in a number of users creating a “Quit Facebook Day” which is promoting social networkers to stage a mass exodus from the site May 31.
“A mass exodus from Facebook seems unlikely, but Facebook members are clearly getting more interested in knowing precisely who can view their data,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.