Facebook and privacy

You can say whatever you want about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, if you read his last memo “a privacy-focused vision for social networking” you could deduce he got the message.

I found it particularly interesting that he links privacy not only with keeping information private but also with reducing the reach and breadth of the interactions on the platform. He mentions the trend of creating small groups to interact and share within that group. He compares Facebook today as a town square whereas it used to be a living room. Now nothing he writes is new or revolutionary. This is just what Mark Zuckerberg thinks he needs to communicate to the world. It is not a leaked memo, but a public post by him. But beneath the surface he does understand where Facebook’s problems are.

I think it is good leadership to be able to look critically at your own company and decide things need to change. By doing it in public, he also makes himself and the company accountable. You bet that an army of analysts and journalists will be referencing this post for years to come when Facebook is not making enough progress to make this happen.