Privacy Concerns Hit Facebook, Google

27 May 2010

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Facebook, talks about new privacy settings

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

People are supposed to be social on a social media site. But choosing to share information is not the same as having it shared for you. And that difference is at the center of debate over privacy on Facebook and other social networks.

A free service that makes money by advertising other sites has to find the right balance. It has to satisfy advertisers seeking information to target ads. But it also has to be careful, or people could start to worry about an invasion of privacy.

Facebook started as a site for college students to share interests and information. Today, it is the largest social media site -- more than four hundred million users. But lately it has faced a lot of criticism about its handling of privacy issues.

On Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, the twenty-six year old chief executive of Facebook, announced changes.

MARK ZUCKERBERG: "Today, we begin rolling out some new controls to make it easier for you to control what you share on Facebook."

He said controlling personal information will be simpler than with the existing system of complex privacy settings.

Marc Rotenberg is president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. He told "The Early Show" on CBS television that the changes may not be enough.