<\/p>\n
Shrugging off his company’s long bouts with privacy concerns, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the weekend that sharing information online is the new “social norm.”<\/p>\n
\n“When we first started Facebook in my dorm room in Harvard [in 2004], people asked me why would I want to have any information at all on the Internet,” the 25-year-old Zuckerberg said at the annual Crunchies awards ceremony sponsored by TechCrunch. “But the social norm has evolved over time.”<\/p>\n
\nClad in jeans, sneakers and a hooded sweatshirt, Zuckerberg told TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington that “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people … We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are.”<\/p>\n
\nPush Back Against Critics<\/p>\n
\nThe comments raised some eyebrows, given substantial indications of concerns lately about privacy and Facebook.<\/p>\n
\n“I’m not sure I understand where that comment came from,” said Interpret Vice President Michael Gartenberg. “In particular, it seems that Facebook users are taking privacy as an issue and given the response to updated privacy settings recently, it would seem consumers do care quite a bit what they share and who they share it with.”<\/p>\n
\nZuckerberg’s comments come just a month after the latest user information flap for the social-network giant, which says it has 350 million users. Last month the company responded to concerns that information — such as friend lists, geography, networks and fan pages — could be easily accessed via searches. Users may now make them private.<\/p>\n
\nIn 2008, the company settled a class-action lawsuit alleging that its Beacon program, integrating the web site with those of retailers like Blockbuster, Overstock.com, Fandango and Zappos, made users’ activity outside Facebook public without adequately warning… <\/p>\n
Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n