To his credit, Mark Zuckerberg has responded to the outcry over privacy, including my column on the subject, by making significant changes to Facebook’s privacy policies.
The most welcome aspects of the changes, discussed by him on the Facebook blog, are that it will be far simpler for a user to control how information is shared, and these choices will apply to future Facebook services.
Facebook has also pulled back from its sleight of hand in making six types of data into “publicly available information” by reducing these to four, including taking users’ friends list out of the category.
Finally, it has made it easier for a user to stop information being shared with other applications or internet sites.
All of these are positive changes and, perhaps most importantly, Mr Zuckerberg has pledged that this will be its privacy policy from now on, rather than being altered again in a few months.
He has more or less meets the recommendations in my column:
Facebook needs to do basic things to act responsibly and regain trust. It should provide simpler and more intuitive privacy controls, and retain them. It must explain clearly how it will distribute “publicly available information” and what the limits on that use will be, not until it changes its mind but for good.
Having said all this, Facebook is still nudging users towards sharing all their information by setting defaults, or “recommended settings”, that way. It will also take some time to regain trust.
It was pushed towards the reforms by the scrutiny of regulators and privacy groups, and European data regulators in particular may not be entirely satisfied.
Still, it is at least a significant step in the right direction.
