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By Robert Strohmeyer
www.itnews.com
May 26, 2010 08:33 pm
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today unveiled his company's revamped privacy tools in
front of a corps of tech journalists that included organizers of last year's
Facebook Redesign Revolt, PCWorld editors who drafted a Bill of Rights for Facebook
Users, and many of the company's fiercest critics of its privacy policies.
Responding to widespread user outrage and criticism from government and private
advocacy groups, Facebook outlined a massive overhaul of the privacy controls that
govern how users' information is shared on the site.
"We listened to the feedback that we got, and we agree with it," Zuckerberg told
assembled members of the press at the company's Palo Alto headquarters. "We're
really going to try to not have another backlash."
The major changes to the site's privacy options consist of a simplified set of
controls that will let users opt out of three main types of information sharing:
personal content, personal information, and the application platform.
New users to the site should begin seeing the revamped tools immediately, while
existing accounts will be migrated to the new tool set over the coming days and
weeks.
New Defaults
While many users have called for Facebook to change its default privacy settings to
an entirely opted-out model, Zuckerberg explained that the company has chosen not to
do so. "When people are able to share more, that leads to a world that's more open
and connected," said the Facebook co-founder. "People want to share information, and
they're best able to do that when they have control over what they share."
However, as Zuckerberg noted, the company has strong opinions about how sharing on
the Web should be done. So the default settings will allow status updates, photos,
and posts to be shared with everyone and photos you're tagged in, your religious and
political view, and your birthday to be seen by friends of friends, while personal
contact information will be kept private unless you alter that setting.
Opting Out
The new controls also include options that should make it easier for users to opt
out entirely from sharing information publicly with other users, sharing their
profile with third-party companies through the controversial Instant Personalization
program that connects Facebook accounts to other Web sites, and sharing information
with applications on the Facebook application platform.
Once a user changes any of these privacy settings, it will be retroactively applied
to all previously posted content. However, it is worth noting that any information
already made public may have long since found its way into other databases created
by social media data mining companies. So, while the changes from Facebook may help
with new content posted in the future, they will not address any breaches of privacy
that may have occurred in the past.
Facebook has long framed privacy controls discussions in terms of granularity vs.
simplicity. As the site grew, the company added more granular controls to let users
set specific sharing options. The new controls are aimed at simplifying that
granularity for users who may not understand what information they're sharing on the
network. However, Zuckerberg notes that "we like the granular controls and we're not
taking those away."
In addition to the simpler settings menus, users will still have the ability to
customize settings for specific pieces of content, including shared photos and
links, pages they've "liked," and application they've added.
Zuckerberg claims that the new policies will mean less user information will be
required to be public, though it is not clear yet which specific segments of data he
was referring to.
Ongoing Scrutiny
In responding to journalists' questions at the end of his presentation, Zuckerberg
was careful to downplay the growing threat that regulatory scrutiny might pose to
Facebook's business, arguing that while the company "engaged with a bunch of privacy
advocates to understand their concerns" and "had conversations with senators," these
changes were primarily prompted by user feedback. With no apparent sense of irony,
he added: "The great thing with the Internet is that there's no shortage of opinion
either on Facebook or on blogs, so it's easy to listen to what people are saying."
Robert Strohmeyer is executive editor at PCWorld. He keeps his Facebook profile
private, but you can follow him on Twitter at @strohmyPCW.
http://www.itnews.com/social-media/18311/facebook-answers-critics-new-privacy-controls
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