Zuckerberg promises simpler privacy settings

Facebook adding simpler privacy controls to provide alternative to granular settings

Founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg posted a column late Sunday night directly addressing the latest attacks against the social network and promising that, in the coming weeks, privacy controls will be greatly simplified from the current system.

Zuckerberg opens his post with a broad look into the ultimate vision of Facebook:

Six years ago, we built Facebook around a few simple ideas. People want to share and stay connected with their friends and the people around them. If we give people control over what they share, they will want to share more. If people share more, the world will become more open and connected. And a world that's more open and connected is a better world. These are still our core principles today.

Of course, not everyone thinks they should have to play along with Facebook's grand ambitions for global openness.

Facebook has repeatedly come under fire from privacy advocates for its tendency to lean towards more openness as well as its seeming leniency when providing data to third-party companies. Not very long after Facebook made its big new development announcements in late April, for example, four Democratic US Senators sent an open letter to Zuckerberg saying that the social network had crossed the line when it decided to share information with third-party sites without the user's consent.

Well, according to Zuckerberg, we can put these worries to rest.

Sometime in the next few weeks, Facebook will "add privacy controls that are much simpler to use." Because of the choice use of the word "add," I'm led to believe that more advanced users will still be able to fine-tune their privacy settings through the current granular system. Indirectly responding to the senators' call, Zuckerberg says his company will also give users "an easy way to turn off all third-party services."

Since two of the biggest complaints against Facebook have been related to its overly complex privacy settings and its quickness in handing data to third-party services, it seems like Zuckerberg's company is actually listening to its users.

Another interesting tidbit from the Zuckerberg post, here are the principles Facebook says it operates under:

-- You have control over how your information is shared.

-- We do not share your personal information with people or services you don't want.

-- We do not give advertisers access to your personal information.

-- We do not and never will sell any of your information to anyone.

-- We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone