A primer on privacy for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

Davey Winder
Wednesday, 13 January 2010 20:32

Your IT - Home IT

Mark Zuckerberg seems to have forgotten the true meaning of privacy. iTWire thought it might be able to help the Facebook founder and CEO remember...

So, according to Facebook founder and head honcho Mark Zuckerberg, people are "really comfortable" sharing information openly and with increasing numbers of others. What's more, Zuckerberg told the audience at an awards ceremony in San Francisco last weekend that 'social norms' have changed to the point where privacy is becoming less important.

Of all people Zuckerberg really ought to know that this just isn't the case. In all honesty, can he have truly forgotten the stink that was raised by members of his own social networking outfit just last year when he tried revising the terms and conditions of membership?

Back then tens of thousands of Facebook users got very vocal indeed to protest at what was seen as an affront to member privacy. Zuckerberg stated at the time that "...we wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want. The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work".

Those weasel words did not stop the protests, and eventually Zuckerberg backtracked and returned to the previous set of Facebook terms and conditions. Of course, that did not stop him from having another go at revising things to better suit his vision of the social norm.

That didn't too well either, although it seems to have slipped conveniently off the Zuckerberg radar when making that speech as to just how much of a fuss kicked off at the end of the year when Facebook decided to share everything with everyone.

It seems to me that Zuckerberg would have appeared to have got confused between the type of information that bloggers like to share and the type of information that the vast majority of the online population would prefer stays private, or at least only shared with their express consent and in a way that is under their complete control.

Perhaps I can help clarify, Mr Zuckerberg, the difference between the two data sets by way of a couple of examples and offer a little advice?

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