2008 Woodie Awards
Mark Zuckerberg speaks on Facebook's changes
Deanna Mastropietro
Issue date: 9/19/06 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
In response to users' dissatisfaction of its new feature, the "News Feed," Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and co-founder Chris Hughes held a Collegiate Presswire NewsLink (CPN) online conference on Sept. 14. College journalists logged on to the site and asked the Facebook creators questions pertaining to user privacy and the future of Facebook.
"News Feeds" let users know of any changes to their friends' profiles, such as relationship status, photos or what they wrote on other users' walls. Before the news feed, users would have to recognize these changes themselves but the news-feeds page lists all of their friends' Facebook activity.
College students immediately voiced their outrage by writing to the company and creating petitions and groups showing their disappointment and frustration. Many cited privacy concerns even though their information was already available before the news-feeds. The difference is that the changes are now listed on a constantly updated page.
After seeing the user backlash, Zuckerberg and Hughes posted a letter on the homepage of their site, apologizing for not making users aware of the privacy options available to block their information from going onto News and Mini Feeds.
The September 14 CPN conference enabled Zuckerberg and Hughes to speak to college students directly. They stood by their decision to add News Feeds but acknowledged that "they messed up" on the privacy settings.
In a response to a student who asked about the threat of privacy, Zuckerberg said, "Some people have said they think the feeds are too much, but I think they just surface information that was already there in an easier way. Over the past week, we've received a lot of feedback from people [saying] that they learned things about their friends that they would have otherwise missed. We messed that up. We definitely should have given more granular controls before launching anything. […] The other night we added the ability to remove mini-feed from your limited profile."
The Facebook creators also told students about the expansion of the site. Facebook will be open to anyone rather then just individuals who are affiliated with a college, high school or company. Those in other networks will not be able to see profiles without being added as their friend. Hughes said, "Unless you're in a regional network on the site, you will notice no difference whatsoever to your Facebook. Only the people in your networks will be able to see your profiles, and even those people can be limited with your privacy settings."
Facebook has over 9.5 million users and is the seventh-most trafficked site on the Internet.
"News Feeds" let users know of any changes to their friends' profiles, such as relationship status, photos or what they wrote on other users' walls. Before the news feed, users would have to recognize these changes themselves but the news-feeds page lists all of their friends' Facebook activity.
College students immediately voiced their outrage by writing to the company and creating petitions and groups showing their disappointment and frustration. Many cited privacy concerns even though their information was already available before the news-feeds. The difference is that the changes are now listed on a constantly updated page.
After seeing the user backlash, Zuckerberg and Hughes posted a letter on the homepage of their site, apologizing for not making users aware of the privacy options available to block their information from going onto News and Mini Feeds.
The September 14 CPN conference enabled Zuckerberg and Hughes to speak to college students directly. They stood by their decision to add News Feeds but acknowledged that "they messed up" on the privacy settings.
In a response to a student who asked about the threat of privacy, Zuckerberg said, "Some people have said they think the feeds are too much, but I think they just surface information that was already there in an easier way. Over the past week, we've received a lot of feedback from people [saying] that they learned things about their friends that they would have otherwise missed. We messed that up. We definitely should have given more granular controls before launching anything. […] The other night we added the ability to remove mini-feed from your limited profile."
The Facebook creators also told students about the expansion of the site. Facebook will be open to anyone rather then just individuals who are affiliated with a college, high school or company. Those in other networks will not be able to see profiles without being added as their friend. Hughes said, "Unless you're in a regional network on the site, you will notice no difference whatsoever to your Facebook. Only the people in your networks will be able to see your profiles, and even those people can be limited with your privacy settings."
Facebook has over 9.5 million users and is the seventh-most trafficked site on the Internet.
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