Facebook CEO: 'We've made mistakes' on privacy

by Laurie Segall, CNNMay 24, 2010: 9:40 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, ending his silence about recent privacy controversies, has admitted to making some mistakes and promised to fix the problems.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. The truth is, generally speaking, facebook, even with mistakes, is more secure than the internet as a whole. You can find out anything about me online if you dig. (and for me personally, you don't have to dig deep). This is a reality we have come to accept. Any of us who have blogs, comment on blogs, have a website or even use email seems to understand this reality and consider it an acceptable risk.

The internet is to us, as a public building or street is in the brick and mortar world. I accept certain risks to my privacy and person when I leave my house. When I'm at the market, someone could recognize me and stop and want to chat even if I don't like them and I'll have to try to wriggle out of it somehow. I could be assaulted, I could have an accident, etc. These are all acceptable risks to me since I'm not agoraphobic.

My house is something altogether different. I consider it a space of secure privacy and safety. The risks to my safety and privacy decrease (generally speaking, all things being equal) when I'm in my house (or that's how I feel, I have no idea if that's statistically true but I would imagine it is taking all outside risks into account) as long as I take appropriate household safety precautions. The only people who enter my home are those I invite in. The only people who see me at my most vulnerable are those who are allowed. There is a risk of forced entry but it's low.*

The internet is to the world outside my home as facebook is to the space inside my home. I think much of the anger directed toward facebook/Zuckerberg lately is a result of people feeling incredibly violated. It's like we gave our house keys to a friend and that friend admitted a burglar while we were away. Should we have trusted Zuckerberg & co. as we would a friend? Perhaps not. But most of us aren't conspiracy theorists or paranoid people. Most of us trust that something will work as it claims and that people will honor their commitments and responsibilities.

So I guess the question is this - will facebook continue to be the inside/secure space of our internet lives as our homes are in our brick and mortar lives or do we need to just lump facebook into the rest of the internet and abandon those perceptions?

*caveat - some people use facebook primarily or even exclusively for business networking and promotion - this changes the facebook dynamic and for them, I think it becomes much more like a public space...or maybe a good comparison would be a networking coffee event - slightly more "secure" than the public market but less so than a home.

I don't find any of this all that surprising and I think we should be very careful with our reactions. I can tell you that in spite of all the conversations we have about race and ethnicity and sexual orientation and gender identity...my girls until about the age of 6 or 7 would often say things just as shocking (they would also say things like "when I grow up I'm going to marry a boy and take care of him" in spite of my frequent feminist rants). They are white, in many ways "stereotypically" female, in a home with straight parents, most of the people around them are the same. I'm also not surprised about the response of the black kids. Of course I think the reaction to have more/better conversations about race are a good idea but I hope we don't go crazy about this...esp. in reaction to this study.

Nike helps obscure female athletes train and find a community of equally motivated women.

That’s one message from Nike. The other is: It’s O.K. for a buffoon of a man to disrespect women, so long as he continues to throw a football well.

*shaking head. Fundamentalism in all religions/belief systems/ideologies is just so absurd.

April 16, 2010

0:12

A few words...

I share my life with a woman. I have approached this relationship with gratitude, joy and humility. I am honored to have the support of my loving family, a caring partner, friends and people of faith who have accepted me as I come, while encouraging me to become who I am meant to be. My loved ones - you have endured much, loved much and made full the lives of all those around you. I thank you as one who has been blessed by your generosity and gentle spirits.

 

In the abundant amount of private time I have been afforded to reflect, I have been deeply moved by the memory of rich experiences brought about through the intersection of faith and music. Generous fans, humble churches, believers, stumblers, seekers, the broken, the faithful and the faithless, alike, through the common thread of music we have found ourselves in the same spaces ignoble in our own humanity. Where I often begin, alone in sacred spaces, to plumb and pen the depth of my own person, music draws me out to the land of others. I discover that I am not alone, nor have I ever been.

 

As ever,

Jennifer

 

 

 

0 Comment(s).

Beautiful. A woman of grace indeed.

Excellent post about Constance McMillen, the lesbian highschooler who wasn't allowed to attend her prom with her girlfriend and all the issues surrounding it.

They canceled prom because of the "distractions to the education process"? That is one of the most asinine laughable things I've heard a group of supposed "educated people" say. Did they seriously think that canceling prom over this would make the distractions stop? Just when you think we're over this bullshit a Catholic preschool in Boulder, CO refuses to readmit a student because her parents are 2 women (my position on that by the way is that they need to also refuse re-admittance to the children of divorced parents, parents who are gluttons, parents who cheat on their taxes...you get the picture) and a high school refuses to allow a girl to take another girl to prom and refuses to allow one of those girls to dress in a tux. *sigh

This is crazy