SHAMELESS DATA HARVESTER and social notworking wundergit Mark Zuckerberg has written an editorial for the Washington Post about Facebook's approach to privacy. The news is, he's heard of it.
The Post (paywall alert) is a nice comfy home for such writing. Washington Post Chairman Donald Graham is a member of Facebook's board of directors, and Zuckerberg was able to wax merrily about how his personal data vacuuming website isn't as bad as people make out.
"Six years ago, we built Facebook around a few simple ideas. People want to share and stay connected with their friends and the people around them. If we give people control over what they share, they will want to share more. If people share more, the world will become more open and connected. And a world that's more open and connected is a better world. These are still our core principles today," he said, making us wonder where the whole marketing advertising business fits into these principles.
Zuckerberg, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned to the ground, is keen to avoid any controversy with his comments. Instead he paints a picture of a world full of smiling, happy photosharers. However, he concedes that in a few areas the outfit might have been just a little bit naughty.
"Facebook [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. Sometimes we move too fast - and after listening to recent concerns, we're responding."
Facebook is responding by making its privacy settings, which Zuckerberg said were designed to be easy to use in the first place, easier to use. "There needs to be a simpler way to control your information," he said. "In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use." Simpler than what, we wonder? Trying to saddle a weasel?
Facebook will also make it simpler for its users to turn off third-party services, long a bone of contention amongst its users, who have changed their minds about the suitability of going around 'liking' things and then only later discovering that they're obliged to tell everyone about it all. µ
