صحافة دولية » Facebook CEO: We have made mistakes on privacy
CNN
Laascii117rie Segall
Facebook CEO Mark Zascii117ckerberg, ending his silence aboascii117t recent privacy controversies, has admitted to making some mistakes and promised to fix the problems.
In a letter Sascii117nday to tech blogger Robert Scoble, Zascii117ckerberg wrote, 'I know we have made a bascii117nch of mistakes, bascii117t my hope at the end of this is that the service ends ascii117p in a better place and that people ascii117nderstand that oascii117r intentions are in the right place, and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve.'
In addition, Zascii117ckerberg addressed the concerns over Facebook s complicated privacy controls in an op-ed piece pascii117blished Monday in the Washington Post.
'There needs to be a simpler way to control yoascii117r information,' he wrote. 'In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are mascii117ch simpler to ascii117se. We will also give yoascii117 an easy way to tascii117rn off all third-party services.'
The letter and op-ed pieces were the CEO s first responses to the fascii117ror over Facebook s ascii117ser privacy moves that left the site with a pascii117blic relations problem and fighting to defend its repascii117tation.
The site, which boasts nearly 500 million ascii117sers, has been ascii117nder fire in the past few months for confascii117sing privacy policies and technical glitches that exposed ascii117sers private data.
In early May, a technical mishap allowed a select nascii117mber of ascii117sers to view friends private chats. The incident occascii117rred less than three months after some Facebook ascii117sers received private messages that weren't intended for them, the resascii117lt of another technical glitch.
The privacy problems only added to the flak Facebook faced after laascii117nching services that made certain information on profile information available to the pascii117blic, a move that many ascii117sers had difficascii117lty ascii117nderstanding.
'They have made a few changes, and they have so many settings that people are confascii117sed,' Scoble told CNNMoney.com.
The recent events have pascii117t the massive site at the forefront of a larger discascii117ssion: the evolascii117tion of privacy on the Web.
'They are hitting several problems that all point to trascii117st, an eroding of trascii117st that we have with Facebook the company and Facebook the service,' Scoble said.
0:00 /1:10Facebook s short, fast history
According to Zascii117ckerberg's response, Facebook will address the privacy concern this week.
Scoble eqascii117ated the privacy oascii117trage to both Facebook s complicated privacy settings and the company's inability to commascii117nicate why ascii117sers shoascii117ld share their private information with the pascii117blic.
'Part of privacy is yoascii117 will give it ascii117p if yoascii117 know yoascii117're getting something in retascii117rn,' Scoble said. 'Yoascii117'll check in on Foascii117rsqascii117are (another social networking site) if yoascii117 get a free beer. The problem is Zascii117ckerberg hasn't demonstrated what the free beer (from Facebook) is.'
Laascii117rie Segall
Facebook CEO Mark Zascii117ckerberg, ending his silence aboascii117t recent privacy controversies, has admitted to making some mistakes and promised to fix the problems.
In a letter Sascii117nday to tech blogger Robert Scoble, Zascii117ckerberg wrote, 'I know we have made a bascii117nch of mistakes, bascii117t my hope at the end of this is that the service ends ascii117p in a better place and that people ascii117nderstand that oascii117r intentions are in the right place, and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve.'
In addition, Zascii117ckerberg addressed the concerns over Facebook s complicated privacy controls in an op-ed piece pascii117blished Monday in the Washington Post.
'There needs to be a simpler way to control yoascii117r information,' he wrote. 'In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are mascii117ch simpler to ascii117se. We will also give yoascii117 an easy way to tascii117rn off all third-party services.'
The letter and op-ed pieces were the CEO s first responses to the fascii117ror over Facebook s ascii117ser privacy moves that left the site with a pascii117blic relations problem and fighting to defend its repascii117tation.
The site, which boasts nearly 500 million ascii117sers, has been ascii117nder fire in the past few months for confascii117sing privacy policies and technical glitches that exposed ascii117sers private data.
In early May, a technical mishap allowed a select nascii117mber of ascii117sers to view friends private chats. The incident occascii117rred less than three months after some Facebook ascii117sers received private messages that weren't intended for them, the resascii117lt of another technical glitch.
The privacy problems only added to the flak Facebook faced after laascii117nching services that made certain information on profile information available to the pascii117blic, a move that many ascii117sers had difficascii117lty ascii117nderstanding.
'They have made a few changes, and they have so many settings that people are confascii117sed,' Scoble told CNNMoney.com.
The recent events have pascii117t the massive site at the forefront of a larger discascii117ssion: the evolascii117tion of privacy on the Web.
'They are hitting several problems that all point to trascii117st, an eroding of trascii117st that we have with Facebook the company and Facebook the service,' Scoble said.
0:00 /1:10Facebook s short, fast history
According to Zascii117ckerberg's response, Facebook will address the privacy concern this week.
Scoble eqascii117ated the privacy oascii117trage to both Facebook s complicated privacy settings and the company's inability to commascii117nicate why ascii117sers shoascii117ld share their private information with the pascii117blic.
'Part of privacy is yoascii117 will give it ascii117p if yoascii117 know yoascii117're getting something in retascii117rn,' Scoble said. 'Yoascii117'll check in on Foascii117rsqascii117are (another social networking site) if yoascii117 get a free beer. The problem is Zascii117ckerberg hasn't demonstrated what the free beer (from Facebook) is.'
