Craighton's Logic

Facebook CEO Admits It Made Mistakes

Posted by on May 24, 2010 | 14 Comments

Zuckerberg’s first comment since the privacy controversy, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that it, the company, “made a bunch of mistakes” and wants to “get this stuff right.”

Recently Zuckerberg has been criticized for a lack of communication on Facebook users’ privacy concerns, and a public comment from Zuckerberg hasn’t been forthcoming. Zuckerberg’s speech isn’t a public apology, but rather, a reply to a private email from tech enthusiast Robert Scoble, who then requested permission to reprint his response.

Zuckerberg’s replied that Facebook wants to respond to the dustup with a product fix. Rather than simply telling users what he intends to change, he’d rather go ahead and make that change.

Here’s Zuckerberg’s reply in full:

Hey,

We’ve been listening to all the feedback and have been trying to distill it down to the key things we need to improve. I’d like to show an improved product rather than just talk about things we might do.

We’re going to be ready to start talking about some of the new things we’ve built this week. I want to make sure we get this stuff right this time.

I know we’ve made a bunch of mistakes, but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that our intentions are in the right place and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve.

I hope we’ll get a chance to catch up in person sometime this week. Let me know if you have any thoughts for me before then.

Mark

To Facebook’s users and followers, it has seems that Facebook either doesn’t know or doesn’t want to get involved with user concerns around privacy. It’s great that Facebook is looking to improve its privacy settings, but explaining these moves earlier and more openly may have been better.

  • Marc Erickson

    This is a poor attempt at damage control. From this response I’m not sure Zuckerberg knows who Scoble is.

    From this reply I do not see any understanding of why users are pissed off – to the point of 60% saying they may abandon their Facebook accounts. He still doesn’t get it. It’s OK to *think* ‘you don’t have any privacy online, but to say that and behave that way isn’t consciousable for someone in his position.

    What a CEO thinks permeates his/her organization. I suspended my account about a week ago – it’s time to cancel it.

  • Pingback: Is the iPhone Heading to Sprint? ~ Chris Pirillo

  • leftystrat

    Do you believe, for one second, that anyone in that organization is serious about privacy? It’s a business. They make money with the users’ information. The only reason they sound contrite is that they got caught.

    And the users are going to swallow it and keep providing information they shouldn’t.

    We’re doomed.

  • John Kotson

    I got fed up with third party apps that were ‘friends’ of other third party apps giving themselves additional permissions with my account and privacy settings. I’d waste an hour editing and changing settings… only to have all the old apps reinstall themselves and change my privacy settings again. It’s not a $%&#%^ game! I deleted my account yesterday.

  • http://twitter.com/Stinja J-Stin

    Had a blackberry on verizon before the iPhone was released. Couldn’t stand it, and as soon as the iPhone came to Verizon I used another family member’s upgrade and got the iPhone for the reduced price. Great decision.

  • David K.

    The antenna “problem” isn’t a problem, its a design choice and a physics limitation.

  • TJ

    Bah, Android all the way … My Droid2 is far and away the best phone I have ever had (or even used). Can’t wait to slip into an LTE + IPv6 equipped Bionic!

  • http://flickr.com/photos/mswatty Watty

    I’m sorry, but where’s the trick? You couldn’t wait ‘up to’ two days to get a replacement phone?

    I haven’t switched yet. I am still using the BlackBerry Curve 8330. I was up at 3am for the preorder and didn’t order it. I can wait.

  • Anonymous

    i donated one computer, and gave away another. Both are desktops. The one i gave away is a 12 year old HP. Today it sits in a home giving their child wireless for her games. Now she can be in any room in the home. The one i donated I don’t know what happen to it. It was a HP also. As for cell phones. I still have all of mine. Honestly I don’t know what to do with them. A couple of them still have my settings on them, and i have no clue where the charger hookup has gone too. I guess i should trash them at this point. I also have a couple digital converter boxes. One is brand new never used still in the box.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UTZYTXPMBEYVD35YYKJM7N34PQ Karl

    You could also interest people to use older technology like that for something like how to build a web server for home and use it just among friends and relatives. Granted it doesn’t need to be the latest and greatest thing for creating a html web page. or using something like Joomla where mysql and php are involved for friends and relatives.

  • Anonymous

    The iPhone 3G is not a good example of what the iPhone brand represents. It’s an outdated model and very slow by today’s standards.

  • Moss

    I don’t understand how you can hate a service which provides 1 click purchase of almost any music, tv show, film, podcast etc.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ANFNJLH3S5REVOANADF7JWJ7VQ Ruslan

    Well, the thing is that any iPhone becomes outdated within just one year. And even iPhone 4 is not 4G, so it’s “slow by today’s standards”. That being said I don’t mean to say I don’t like iPhone or “what the iPhone brand represents” (although I’m not sure what you mean. Innovation maybe?). iPhone and other Apple products are forever changing the ways we communicate and compute. There’s no other company that did more in that space in such a short period of time. What I don’t like is the way loyal customers are treated by Apple. I personally like a more open platform, where I can chose what should be my default browser (Firefox, Opera, Chrome or Maxthon), what should be my default MP3 player, etc. But then again I’m a geek. :)

    P.S. Verizon’s network is way overhiped in my personal experience. I hardly get 1 or 2 bars at home or at work. And no, I don’t live in the forest. I live at the intersection of two major interstate highways, close to the offices of several major IT companies (ex Oracle). AT&T was the only reliable provider in many places I’ve been and I had their service for over 10 years.