Buffeted by privacy snafus and the lingering fallout from a damning,
years-old instant messaging thread, Facebook chief exec Mark Zuckerberg switched into full-on damage control Monday,
confessing that the sprawling social network had "missed the mark" when
it comes to its complex privacy controls — and pledging to do better.
In an open
letter published Monday in the
Washington Post (whose chairman, Donald E. Graham, just so happens to sit on
Facebook's board of directors), Zuckerberg wrote that Facebook has
been "growing quickly" and admitted that "sometimes we move too fast."
"Many
of you thought our controls were too complex," Zuckerberg's letter
reads. "Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls" — uh,
you can say that again — "but that may not have been what many of you
wanted. We just missed the mark."
Zuckerberg promised, in
"coming weeks," privacy controls that will be "much simpler
to use" — including an "easy way to turn off all third-party services"
that can access your account.
But Zuckerberg wasn't just
announcing new privacy features in Monday's open letter; he was also
clearly trying to bridge a growing trust gap
between Facebook and its increasingly suspicious users, especially in
light of reports last week
that Facebook (among other social
networks) had been passing along user name and IDs to
advertisers (including Google's
DoubleClick and Yahoo!'s own Right Media) without users' consent. Those privacy loopholes
have since been plugged, say Facebook, MySpace and other social networks.
But
Zuckerberg is also being dogged by an embarrassing IM thread from when
he was a 19-year-old Harvard student, bragging that he'd gathered
personal information from thousands of users for the nascent TheFacebook.com.
"People just submitted it," Zuckerberg messaged, "I don't know why. They
'trust me.' Dumb [expletive]." (This comes via Silicon Alley Insider.)
Naturally,
the indiscreet IM thread has ignited controversy. Some argue that
Zuckerberg shouldn't be held accountable for something he'd written when
he was still a teenager (all of six years ago, mind you). Others say
the remarks illustrate a cavalier attitude toward user privacy.
The
debate seems to have struck a chord with Zuckerberg, who bent over
backward in his letter Monday to emphasize Facebook's "core principles,"
which include seeking to build a "better world" that's "open and
connected."
Zuckerberg also revealed a bit more in an e-mail to blogger Robert
Scoble, confiding that "we've made a bunch of mistakes" but
that he hopes "people understand that our intentions are in the right
place."
Well, as I'm sure Zuckerberg understands, people tend to
believe actions more than words, and a revamped set of simple,
easy-to-use privacy controls — including, say, the option to start from
scratch and opt in to sharing options rather than having to opt out —
would be a step in the right direction. But rebuilding trust with Facebook's users will be a long, slow process,
and the fewer privacy missteps between now and then, the better.
What
do you think of Zuckerberg's letter? Does he sound sincere to you?
Willing to give Facebook and its upcoming privacy reboot the benefit of
the doubt? Or are you ready to jump ship for good?