Infinite Path

The debate over Facebook privacy intensified on Monday with co-founder Mark Zuckerberg admitting that the company had “missed the mark” over the issue.

Tension has been rising on the social networking site over new privacy settings which were introduced late last year. This spawned a spin-off website entitled ‘quitfacebookday’ on which over 13,500 Facebook members have committed to delete their profiles on May 31 in protest.

Mr Zuckerberg’s comments are clearly designed to placate these users, as well as privacy groups in the US who have complained to the Federal Trade Commission over the new settings.

They argued that privacy on Facebook has been compromised by the firm encouraging users to open up their profiles. Facebook did this to make it easier for users to control their profiles but it also made it easier for content to be shared with all Facebook users. The thought of personal photos and comments being seen by all 350 million Facebook users has angered privacy campaigners.

In a column in the Washington Post, Mr Zuckerberg said that Facebook would now make changes to the privacy options of users, and that the company had listened to recent concerns and was responding to them. He went on to say that “the biggest message we have heard recently is that people want easier control over their information.

“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. We just missed the mark.”

The criticism of Facebook’s privacy policy has not been confined to the US. In the EU, data protection officials have described the changes to the privacy settings as “unacceptable”, whilst in Canada two investigations were conducted after complaints about the site’s privacy policies had been made. The complaint concerned an allegation that a new tool made it harder for Facebook users to control who sees their personal information.

On Friday, Facebook also admitted that it was changing the way it shares data with advertisers on the site. The Wall Street Journal had highlighted that Facebook had been sending the ID or username of the person clicking on an advert to the advertiser under certain circumstances. A Facebook spokesman expressed that this had been fixed as soon as it had been discovered.

Mr Zuckerberg has not stated when the new changes will be implemented but has admitted that they will happen “as soon as possible.” Whether this will be enough to placate the 13,500 users who are committed to leaving Facebook at the end of the month remains to be seen.

Update: Facebook has stated that it will roll out a new set of privacy settings to all users starting tomorrow. The company will post details on its blog.