Facebook CEO Apologizes For Privacy Infractions: "We Simply Did A Bad Job"

Wall Street Journal:

After weeks of criticism over a new advertising program that was perceived as a privacy threat, Facebook Inc. has tweaked its privacy settings and offered a public apology from its chief executive -- but advertisers remain wary.

The program, which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled last month, allows Facebook to track and broadcast its users' activities on third-party Web sites that partner with the social-networking site, such as purchases. For instance, Facebook users could receive messages telling them that a friend had bought a sweater on Overstock.com or a movie ticket on Fandango.com. Called Beacon, the program was intended to give advertisers a way "into the conversations between people," Mr. Zuckerberg said.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[watchingthings]

They're probably running around in circles wringing their hands and wondering out loud, "How can we keep charging 1000% profit when somebody else will be making it for pennies on the dollar of what we've been charging".
They do need to get their money back for research and developement, it's been a long time since they got that money back. They also patent drugs which were developed using taxpayer bucks.

[middleoftheroad]

MoveOn could make a major turning point with this issue and should promote it as such. This geat victory crosses political lines. Facebook took advantage of it's users (KIDS) and should pay the price for it. It begs the question "WHAT ELSE DO THEY DO TO THEIR USERS'ACCOUNTS?"

[humblediplomat]

As usual with greedy execs, they are not sorry for what they did, but sorry that they got caught.