Vig the Geek

Twitter updated its twitter.com and tweetdeck client today. Here is a look at what has changed in each as well at the old Tweetdeck for comparison

Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg own up to privacy mistakes

Anyone who has been online or on Facebook for a minute during the last few years will remember one thing. Facebook changes… a lot. Whether it’s tagging or photos or the newsfeed or privacy, there’s one thing Facebook does well and that’s change. The general public complains anytime there’s a change and then a few weeks later can’t remember what the old version looked like. The one area that seems to garner more complaints than others and the type that persist is privacy.

Privacy has been a big issue for a long time. People are sharing more and more and they are doing it faster. They rate at which they share and the amount they share is at the highest it has ever been and it’s increasing. It’s actually accelerating. And it will continue to with the advent of new technologies and the embedding of social networking into phones and tablets, etc. I know I’ve complained about it as well.

I use no privacy on my personal Facebook account - go look. It’s wide open. I have nothing to hide. Beyond that, I don’t trust Facebook to get it right (it’s not entirely their fault and I’ll explain why). Anyway, I am my own privacy. If I don’t want the world to know about it, I don’t say it. Plain and simple. Can’t break that privacy.

Facebook is at the forefront of this space - social networking. If you are leading the pack with no map, it’s easy to get lost. And they have. Mark Zuckerberg posted a blog today about how they always have been, are now, and will continue to be committed to privacy. He did, however, admit to making some mistakes along the way. That’s to be expected. They embrace every new technology and are quick to implement things to make their service better. There will be collateral damage along the way.

One shining example of a mistake was Beacon from a few years ago. It sent data from external websites to Facebook to target ads for people. Things you would do on some websites would appear in your Facebook newsfeed. It wasn’t malicious. It was a failed attempt to customize your experience. Today, Mark Zuckerberg said that Beacon was a mistake.

They have, in the last year to 18 months, given very granular control to individuals over privacy. They have made it easy to see what you are sharing and with whom and have total control over it. It’s different than it used to be and requires some work set it up initially, but once that is complete, it’s simple to continue the process and make minor changes to it. That doesn’t seem to be enough for people, or even for Facebook.

Today, they announced two new officer positions in the company. Chief Privacy Officer, Policy and Chief Privacy Officer, Products. These 2 people (good choices, by the way) will ensure that privacy and the ability to control it is baked into the product and all ensuing new products rather than added later in a way that is counterintuitive.

Facebook, like Twitter and Google, is also working with the Federal Trade Commission. They are working to establish agreements and standardize privacy efforts. This is not lip service from the Facebook team. They believe that if you offer people privacy and the ability to control it, then they will find comfort in the service and share more. It’s also not a bait and switch. People who feel unsafe will share nothing. People who do feel safe will share everything, specifically with who they choose to share it with.

I’ll share everything with everybody. My life is not exciting enough to be worth hiding in the first place.