FACEBOOK founder Mark Zuckerberg says the social
networking service has made blunders that it hopes
to fix with coming changes to its privacy controls.
Mr Zuckerberg issued a mea culpa in an email exchange on Sunday with popular technology blogger Robert Scoble, who shared it at his website after purportedly getting Zuckerberg's permission.
"I want to make sure we get this stuff right this time," said a message attributed to Mr Zuckerberg.
"I know we've made a bunch of mistakes, but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that our intentions are in the right place and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve."
Mr Zuckerberg, who turned 26 years old on May 14, said Facebook would start talking publicly this week about privacy control modifications.
"We've been listening to all the feedback and have been trying to distill it down to the key things we need to improve," he wrote. "We're going to be ready to start talking about some of the new things we've built this week."
Facebook on Saturday caved to pressure from critics and said it would simplify controls over the degree of privacy given to users of the popular social networking service.
The company has been under fire from privacy and consumer groups over new features that critics claim compromise the privacy of its more than 400 million members.
Features introduced last month include the ability for partner websites such as micro-blogging site Twitter to incorporate Facebook data, a move that would further expand the social network's presence on the internet.
Critics said they were worried personal information about Facebook users was available to third-party websites.
Facebook said it would move to make personal information settings "simpler and easier to use".
Spokesman Andrew Noyes said the company had spent the past couple of weeks listening to users and consulting with experts in the US and around the world.
"The messages we've received are pretty clear," Mr Noyes said. "Users appreciate having precise and comprehensive controls, but want them to be simpler and easier to use."
The announcement comes just over a week after Sydney teenager Nona Belomesoff was allegedly murdered by a man she had befriended on the site.
Her death sparked a plea from police to teenagers who use Facebook not to post photos, school details or a date of birth on the site.
Sydney-based teenagers Liz Jameson and Margaret Sevenjhazi, both 19, said they were "increasingly concerned" about the level of private information made available on the web.
Both said they would spend more than three hours a day on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, mostly through their mobile phones.
Ms Sevenjhazi said she found the Facebook user settings - which include a 5830-word privacy policy - "really complicated" and was not a fan of the new third-party share features. She said she had recently been "stalked" on Facebook and had a male approach her to ask to "meet up".
"It wasn't the same guy with Nona (Belomesoff), but this guy tried to befriend me, gave me his number and wanted me to come over to his house," she said.
"I had no idea who he was . . . the scary thing is anyone can set up a profile - you just don't know who you could be talking to."
Canadian internet consultants Matthew Milan and Joseph Dee believe Facebook makes it "too difficult" for users to understand its information settings and often compromises the privacy of its members.
They have declared May 31 as Quit Facebook Day and have created a website where other users can pledge to do the same.
So far, more than 13,000 people have signed up to the boycott.
The federal government this month launched an inquiry into cyber safety, chaired by Dana Wortley, who urged parents to arm themselves with tools to monitor their children's online use.
"Parents are anxious about cyber safety," Senator Wortley said.
"When you meet somebody face to face, you can tell a lot from body language and instincts, and you cannot do that when you are dealing with somebody online."
Senior lecturer at RMIT University and internet privacy expert Jeremy Yuille said he would like to see a web safety course taught in Australian schools.
"Teenagers using social networks are often the most vulnerable online," he said.
"They need to have some kind of education that they should be as aware and as sceptical of people online as we are in real life."
