It's no secret that Facebook has been hammered by criticism for its lack of adherence to user privacy. In an email response to a tech enthusiast, CEO and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, responded to privacy concerns by saying that the company has made "a bunch of mistakes," and that it intends to correct them, learn from user feedback, and grow from the experience. The full email can be seen on Scobleizer.
At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City, Facebook vice president of product, Chris Cox has given slightly more detail as to how and when Facebook intends to respond to such concerns. In a Google Buzz-like fashion, beginning tomorrow, Facebook will speedily pump out a "drastically simplified" and much improved set of privacy controls. Hoping to alleviate Facebook's issue of having complex to set up, and not-so-private privacy, the company plans to show its users how serious it is about making things right.
After a number of privacy tweaks, and many bugs along the way, Facebook is being very open about its mistakes and desire to change. It seems like Steve Ballmer's impression of Mark Zuckerberg and his intentions with Facebook were pretty spot on. According to TechFlash, when asked about Zuckerberg by Wired.com's Evan Hansena, Ballmer responded:
"Bad guys are bad guys. OK? There are guys who are really trying to innovate and do interesting things where it's complex. It's hard. Mark is a good guy. Are they struggling with a set of issues? Sure, they're struggling with a set of issues, and you should chat with those guys about it. But the notion that people are trying to do innovative thing that do advance the state of the art, both in privacy and in communications, that's kinda the way the system works, and if people don't want to play on their property, they won't play on their property."
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