Mark Zuckerberg’s Letter

by Mikey Cramer

Last night Mark Zuckerberg posted an open letter on Facebook outlining new privacy changes.  Most notably, Facebook is removing regional networks completely, as some of these “regions” now include over 100 million people.  Facebook has determined, and I agree, that this is no longer the best situation from a privacy control perspective.  Regional networks made sense at Facebook’s inception, as users were specifically college students, and this allowed for a relevant sharing of information.  But as these networks have grown, users were no longer sharing content with just fellow classmates, but an entire city (or country for that matter, e.g. China, India.)

Facebook has developed a basic model for privacy management that allows users to choose between sharing information with friends, friends of friends, or everyone.  Totally simple.  Additionally, individual pieces of content can now be managed separately, allowing for ultimate privacy control.  Allegedly, over the next few weeks, users will be prompted to review and update their privacy settings.  Facebook will even make some recommendations based on current levels of privacy.

And despite the fact that the Facebook community tends to freak out when anything on the beloved platform changes, I think users will ultimately be grateful for enhanced privacy control.

You can view Mark’s entire letter and all of the user comments, who have now moved on to more important issues like the addition of a “dislike” button, here.

Image Source: Gauldo