Spiderlegs Conundrum

Facebook admits privacy errors, plans new settings
25 May, 2010

Social networking giant Facebook admitted Monday that it had made mistakes in its privacy policies and promised to roll out new tools that would make it easier for its 400 million users to control their personal data.

Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old billionaire founder of the second most popular site on the internet, made the admission in a column that appeared in the Washington Post Monday amid growing user anger sparked by a string of privacy glitches.

"The biggest message we have heard recently is that people want easier control over their information," wrote Zuckerberg. "Simply put, many of you thought our controls were too complex. Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls; but that may not have been what many of you wanted."

Zuckerberg said that the company would introduce simpler privacy settings within weeks, as well as a way to block all third-party services.

Facebook has often come in for criticism of its privacy policy, whose default setting is to allow large amounts of personal data to be viewed and searched by the public. Criticism grew following the introduction of new features recently that extended Facebook buttons across numerous internet sites and could have exposed users' browsing habits to others.

"We just missed the mark," said Zuckerberg. "We have heard the feedback."