Facebook, CEO Still Having Privacy Issues?

A popular but embattled social networking service may still have PR problems concerning privacy — and so might its CEO.

Late last week a computer security expert reported that even if Facebook users are not logged in to their account and have not opted in to the Beacon service, third-party vendors are still sending information through the service to Facebook.  While this does not contradict the incremental changes Facebook made last week, it has rankled some in the privacy advocacy community.  According to the researcher, Stefan Berteau, “the bottom line is that Facebook is materially misrepresenting the privacy impact of their Beacon program, and presenting users with the appearance of control over their information when in fact they have almost none.”The San Jose Mercury News editorial board did not react kindly to the news, publishing an editorial entitled “Facebook move doesn’t clear up privacy fears“:

“Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have made personal lives an open book on the Internet, especially for the younger generation. But the blowup over Facebook’s controversial advertising program made it clear that users want to control what goes out there. And for many, their buying habits are off limits.

“Internet sites and online marketers need to ensure that privacy protections aren’t chiseled away in this brave new world. Congress and other policy-makers need to get up to speed on what’s happening and decide if stronger protections are needed for this fundamental right.”
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Social networking sites have brought us into a new era of connectedness. But the basic expectation of privacy must not change.

The hit parade hasn’t stopped for Facebook’s creator and CEO, either.  According to the Times Online (UK), Mark Zuckerberg has failed to prevent the publication of documents from his time at Harvard from being published on a Harvard-based website.  The documents appear to be none too favorable to the young entrepreneur; the original article discusses longstanding claims that Zuckerberg stole ideas for the networking site from other programmers in 2003 and 2004.