Facebook responds, bolsters privacy options for '"feed" features

September 8, 2006 | Matt Marshall

Facebook‘s founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has apologized for the “feed” features the site released earlier this week, and unveiled some corrections.

Facebook has bolstered privacy controls, which is fully explained here (if you are a member). Zuckerberg blogged about his thoughts early this morning.

Here is the gist:

Somehow we missed this point with Feed and we didn’t build in the proper privacy controls right away. This was a big mistake on our part, and I’m sorry for it. But apologizing isn’t enough. I wanted to make sure we did something about it, and quickly. So we have been coding nonstop for two days to get you better privacy controls. This new privacy page will allow you to choose which types of stories go into your Mini-Feed and your friends’ News Feeds, and it also lists the type of actions Facebook will never let any other person know about. If you have more comments, please send them over.

The comes in response to protests by hundreds of thousands of Facebook’s users about the features, which let users automatically see the updates on pages of other members of their college and chosen circle of friends. Protesters said it made it even easier for stalking and annoying voyeurism.

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About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.