Langsung ke konten utama

Facebook Answers Critics With New Privacy Controls

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today unveiled his company's revamped privacy tools in front of a corps of tech journalists that included organizers of last year's Facebook Redesign Revolt, PCWorld editors who drafted a Bill of Rights for Facebook Users, and many of the company's fiercest critics of its privacy policies.

Responding to widespread user outrage and criticism from government and private advocacy groups, Facebook outlined a massive overhaul of the privacy controls that govern how users' information is shared on the site.

"We listened to the feedback that we got, and we agree with it," Zuckerberg told assembled members of the press at the company's Palo Alto headquarters. "We're really going to try to not have another backlash."
The major changes to the site's privacy options consist of a simplified set of controls that will let users opt out of three main types of information sharing: personal content, personal information, and the application platform.

New users to the site should begin seeing the revamped tools immediately, while existing accounts will be migrated to the new tool set over the coming days and weeks.

New Defaults

While many users have called for Facebook to change its default privacy settings to an entirely opted-out model, Zuckerberg explained that the company has chosen not to do so. "When people are able to share more, that leads to a world that's more open and connected," said the Facebook co-founder. "People want to share information, and they're best able to do that when they have control over what they share."

However, as Zuckerberg noted, the company has strong opinions about how sharing on the Web should be done. So the default settings will allow status updates, photos, and posts to be shared with everyone and photos you're tagged in, your religious and political view, and your birthday to be seen by friends of friends, while personal contact information will be kept private unless you alter that setting.

Opting Out

The new controls also include options that should make it easier for users to opt out entirely from sharing information publicly with other users, sharing their profile with third-party companies through the controversial Instant Personalization program that connects Facebook accounts to other Web sites, and sharing information with applications on the Facebook application platform.

Once a user changes any of these privacy settings, it will be retroactively applied to all previously posted content. However, it is worth noting that any information already made public may have long since found its way into other databases created by social media data mining companies. So, while the changes from Facebook may help with new content posted in the future, they will not address any breaches of privacy that may have occurred in the past.

Granular Options

Facebook has long framed privacy controls discussions in terms of granularity vs. simplicity. As the site grew, the company added more granular controls to let users set specific sharing options. The new controls are aimed at simplifying that granularity for users who may not understand what information they're sharing on the network. However, Zuckerberg notes that "we like the granular controls and we're not taking those away."
In addition to the simpler settings menus, users will still have the ability to customize settings for specific pieces of content, including shared photos and links, pages they've "liked," and application they've added.

Zuckerberg claims that the new policies will mean less user information will be required to be public, though it is not clear yet which specific segments of data he was referring to.

Ongoing Scrutiny

In responding to journalists' questions at the end of his presentation, Zuckerberg was careful to downplay the growing threat that regulatory scrutiny might pose to Facebook's business, arguing that while the company "engaged with a bunch of privacy advocates to understand their concerns" and "had conversations with senators," these changes were primarily prompted by user feedback. With no apparent sense of irony, he added: "The great thing with the Internet is that there's no shortage of opinion either on Facebook or on blogs, so it's easy to listen to what people are saying."

Robert Strohmeyer is executive editor at PCWorld. He keeps his Facebook profile private, but you can follow him on Twitter at @strohmyPCW.

Postingan populer dari blog ini

57% Use Social Network Sites

The power of online social networking was demonstrated by the tens of thousands who gathered in Shanghai at the weekend to pay their respects to the people who died in last Monday's blaze. The event at Jiaozhou Road was launched on microblogs and information spread rapidly on the Internet , especially on social networking sites such as Kaixin001.com. According to a survey by Shanghai Daily and Touchmedia, of 110,000 people traveling in taxis in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen , 57 percent of interviewees use social networking sites or microblogs for more than half an hour a day, and 18 percent for more than three hours. Microblogging is the most popular form. Almost 60 percent of the interviewees said they publish information on microblogs, communicating with friends, following celebrities, expressing their opinions, sharing jokes and conducting online marketing, said the survey.

Upcoming Facebook Redesign Surface

Kerajaan Jeumpa, Kerajaan Islam Pertama Nusantara

Teori tentang kerajaan Islam pertama di Nusantara sampai saat ini masih banyak diperdebatkan oleh para peneliti, baik cendekiawan Muslim maupun non Muslim. Umumnya perbedaan pendapat tentang teori ini didasarkan pada teori awal mula masuknya Islam ke Nusantara. Mengenai teori Islamisasi di Nusantara, para ahli sejarah terbagi menjadi 3 kelompok besar, yaitu pendukung (i) Teori Gujarat (ii) Teori Parsia dan (iii) Teori Mekah (Arab). Bukan maksud tulisan ini untuk membahas teori-teori tersebut secara mendetil, namun dari penelitian yang penulis lakukan, maka dapat disimpulkan bahwa Teori Mekkah (Arab) lebih mendekati kebenaran dengan fakta-fakta yang dikemukakan. Teori Mekkah (Arab) hakikatnya adalah koreksi terhadap teori Gujarat dan bantahan terhadap teori Persia. Di antara para ahli yang menganut teori ini adalah T.W. Arnold, Crawfurd, Keijzer, Niemann, De Holander, SMN. Al-Attas, A. Hasymi, dan Hamka. i Arnold menyatakan para pedagang Arab menyebarkan Islam ketika mereka mendo...