Mark Zuckerberg Sweats In Privacy Hot Seat At All Things Digital (VIDEO)

At All Things D's D8 conference, a tense Mark Zuckerberg fielded questions from Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher about Facebook's privacy controls, his take on privacy, and what's inside his trademark black sweatshirt.

The Facebook CEO seemed ill at ease during the interview. The Wrap notes Zuckerberg "gave a nervous performance" and Forbes' Velocity blog remarks he "seemed like a young man under a lot of pressure, sweating profusely and answering questions about his attitude to privacy with rambling, largely conceptual answers."

Zuckerberg kept many of his answers broad, and sometimes skirted around Mossberg and Swisher's pointed questions. All Things D's John Paczkowski noted in his live blog that early on in the interview, Zuckerberg "dodges" a question about Facebook changing its privacy policy midstream, and then later "dodges again" when asked about giving people the option to opt in to instant personalization.

Zuckerberg was candid about his "stupid" behavior at points when he was first starting Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard.

"When I was in college I did a lot of stupid things and I don't want to make an excuse for that," he said. "Some of the things that people accuse me of are true, some of them aren't. There are pranks. IMs. I started building this when I was around 19 years old, and along the way, a lot of stuff changed. We went from building a service in a dorm room to running a service that 500 million people use." (transcript via the Telegraph)

Despite the controversy Instant Personalization has elicited, Zuckerberg believes it is the future of the web. "A few years from now we'll look back and wonder why there was this time when all these websites weren't personalized," he said, adding, "The world is moving in this direction where everything is designed around people." (transcript via the Wall Street Journal)

There was no word on when Facebook might go public, but Zuckerberg said he intended to remain CEO after an IPO.

Zuckerberg also revealed what's on the inside of his black hoodie (see the bottom video below). (Spoiler alert: It's a large blue Facebook design, with the company's "mission," "Making the world more open and connected." ) "Oh my God. It's like a secret cult!" Swisher joked when she examined the sweatshirt.

WATCH:

Comments

[benyjetr35]

03:10 PM on 06/05/2010

If anyone goes on to the internet, signs up and makes an account on the internet, how then, could they expect it NOT to be on the internet?

The best available privacy setting for those that don't want their information out there is simple, DON'T MAKE AN ACCOUNT. Don't put your information on the internet so that it IS available, how dumb are people?

I use Facebook almost every day and I like it, I don't really care about the "privacy" aspect because I understand the internet and I know what the internet is capable of going into it.

If you make a Facebook account and expect privacy, that's a little bit like the woman who used Google Maps and got hit by a car. These are services, they aren't suppose to replace human intellect or intuition.

Common sense often prevails. Stop making the creator of Facebook out to be the bad guy just because you can't comprehend the magnitude of what an account on the internet can, and probably will be.

[KIVPossum]

05:03 PM on 06/05/2010

A voice of reason

[J0E1]

03:01 PM on 06/04/2010

So, yesterday I discovered something I hadn't noticed before. Mind you, I've been using facebook since it was restricted to .edu emails, but lately I haven't been using it very much so I haven't been keeping up. A friend of mines mom set up a facebook account. She uploaded a bunch of pictures and people started commenting on them. She commented back and something odd showed up on her comments that I've never seen. On every one of her comments was a signature with her full name and phone number. The best part? SHE couldn't see the signature so she had no idea it was showing up. Luckily we got in to her account and restricted everything. I think its a disgrace to introduce something like a comment signature with personal information and hide it from the user. How is a user to know that her phone number is everywhere she posts if even she can't see it? That's downright deceptive practice. The worst part is that even after we "hid" everything from the public, the signature still showed on her past comments. We had to go back and delete every comment she had made up until that point. Just letting anyone know who doesn't know any better that they may be broadcasting their personal information all over the place even after they change their privacy settings.

[ceez]

01:14 PM on 06/04/2010

he did something that works and made him a boat load of cash speciall by sharing our info with merchants (whatever info that might be). now if you dont want that simply go onto your account and change your settings to whatever you seem fit. Read the fine print just like you would anything else.

[David Wonderly]

11:10 AM on 06/04/2010

You know... This is reminding me of the Bill Gates haters out there. This kid built a service and made it work. It became success because people made it that way. Are there privacy issues? Sure, just like anything else. Just a reminder… Facebook only has private information the USERS put up there. Don’t post anything online you don’t want people reading... especially at a SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE. Come on people. I say that Mark is a poster child for success in America, nothing more, nothing less.

[WardC]

11:17 PM on 06/03/2010

It's great to see a video of Zuckerberg squirming and spinning and dancing ... and not answering.

[supergenius02]

10:09 PM on 06/03/2010

Listen this young kid is worth $13 billion. He does not give a dog's rear end what anyone thinks. I am sure after the interview he home to his mansion, re-checked that he is worth BILLIONS then popped a few bottles of Crystal and romped around his bedroom with 5 or 6 hot model chicks. Yeah, he is really sweating life.

[AudiGuy]

10:23 PM on 06/03/2010

His net worth is 4 billion, and yes it does matter.

[brettrobbins]

10:34 PM on 06/03/2010

Only four-thousand million dollars? Thanks for the correction, AudiGuy. I think supergenius02's point still holds. Until we collectively admit how jealous we are of this pipsqueak, we won't be able to get to the next and more healthy stage of being grateful to him for creating a site that brings so many people together that would otherwise be isolated from each other. As for improving the privacy situation and finding a spokesperson equipped with the philosophical erudition needed to grapple with the sorts of crucial questions posed in this clip, these are things that can and will be rectified in the future. In the meantime, he's romping around in his mansion surrounded by champagne bottles and we're not.

[hypnotoad72]

10:58 PM on 06/03/2010

Palin is probably blaming facebook on the environmentalists too...

I'm sure he doesn't care.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/sustainability/?p=952

[brettrobbins]

09:50 PM on 06/03/2010

Perhaps he needs a better spokesperson; he's hardly equipped to address the philosophical issues centered around the notion of privacy. Nevertheless, the first video was edited to shreds; if it included the spaces between what's shown it probably wouldn't seem as though it was one evasion after another on his part, which I doubt it was. If I'm told someone is evasive in an interview, I want to see the whole interview and decide for myself rather than be limited to the bits those who accuse the interviewee of being evasive want me to see.

[gratonite]

09:38 PM on 06/03/2010

Hey Zuckerberg: Just add a reset button kid. One that let's you delete your whole wall and start over. I'd come back then.

[jennyjen]

11:37 AM on 06/04/2010

That is a great idea.

I am not a big user because I would like to keep the groups I join to remain private.

[DangerWillRobinson]

07:49 PM on 06/03/2010

Regardless what words come out Zuckerman's mouth, the inside of the hoodie tells the whole story "making the world open and connected." He only forgot to add "whether you like it or not."

[nasayer2]

06:23 PM on 06/03/2010

He sounds like the love child of Thurston Howell III and Valley Girl.

[brettrobbins]

09:53 PM on 06/03/2010

You sound jealous.

[cjk002]

10:45 PM on 06/03/2010

He does sound goofy, and it has nothing to do with jealousy.

[hypnotoad72]

10:59 PM on 06/03/2010

He sounds cynical. Not jealous.

What is he jealous of?

What is to be jealous of?

Convince us the core issue is jealousy.

[paulbenjouse]

06:21 PM on 06/03/2010

Having watched the video, I now feel sorry for the kid.
Why would any sane investor trust their money to a rather immature 20-something?
Not his fault that so many threw money at him.
He is obviously in over his head when it comes to managing a company that requires adult management and vision (which I do not see).
Industry Blog: www.MyOpenKimono.com

[Wuud52]

08:04 PM on 06/03/2010

Because like it or not, he built something that 500 million people look at, interact with and belong to. If a 5 year old did that, he would have the ear of the investors also. Eyeballs are king...

[hypnotoad72]

11:00 PM on 06/03/2010

Sounds like money is king. People with eyeballs, depending on the country one lives in, get theirs poked out.

[Alette]

09:16 AM on 06/04/2010

The fact that 500 million people around the world have knowingly entrusted their private information with this immature, arrogant kid says a lot more about our immaturity and desperate narcissism than about Zuckerberg's.

[paulbenjouse]

05:43 PM on 06/03/2010

How do you spell J E R K ? Get rid of this talking head please .... before he does even more damage. Where's the Board of Directors???

[jennyjen]

11:44 AM on 06/04/2010

Elliot Schrage, vice president for public policy who did that interview with the NY Times was actually worse.

For your reading pleasure:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/facebook-executive-answers-reader-questions/?src=busln

The whole company has their heads up . . .

Do they think they are not subject to the same fate as myspace? Yes they do.

[earthbelowus]

05:38 PM on 06/03/2010

Joke of the Day: It was once a requirement to have a University (.edu) address to get a Facebook account, back in the day, I mean 5 years ago.

[swp]

04:46 PM on 06/03/2010

Someone needs to take that PUNK out back and instill a little humility in him. ME!.....ME!.....ME!

[Kay-B]

07:35 PM on 06/03/2010

you do it tough internet guy.

[JoeGdr]

02:40 PM on 06/03/2010

His voice, it annoys me.