Over the last few weeks Facebook has had a hard time keeping tabs on their PR problem over privacy concerns. Until earlier this week, Facebook has kept quiet about the latest concerns over privacy that users are making quite a backlash over.

After being basically forced to make a statement, before his baby imploded on itself, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO and Founder wrote an Op Ed in the Washington Post about “… answering privacy concerns with new settings.”

The statement from Zuckerberg could not come at a more desperate time, Facebook pushed the limits way to much with these privacy concerns by not making a right statement fast enough.

Zuckerberg claims that “[Facebook] just missed the mark.” when it relates to the privacy controls about what its users wanted. I’m calling his bluff on this one, the concerns eventually got so out of control that Zuckerberg’s dream of owning the Internet and its’ user’s content finally lost momentum and he had to do damage control prior to losing all reputability in the industry and to his customers.

The problem Facebook had from the beginning is that the web site began as completely private and a isolated ecosystem of interaction with just those people you wanted to interact with. Nowadays, Facebook is realising that you need to be open (ala Twitter) to make profits. They’re trying to change the overall premise of the company – something users who chose privacy weren’t in favor of. Personally, I would hate going to, for example, news.com.au and seeing a story I posted on my Facebook page. I never gave them permission to do that. When my data and activity on the web becomes public, I become worried about what other information is made available to those websites and advertisers.

Facebook will survive, without doubt, but the overall business plan and user experience when it comes to privacy needs to be cleaned up. They need to simplify privacy settings, as Zuckerberg says, so that users can easily differentiate what is and isn’t public and use the site in the ways in which they wish to. Three settings could do it, with more in depth settings for “Advanced” users. The settings I propose are “All Public”, “All Private”, and “Advanced.” Returning freedom to the users in how their data is used is critical for Facebook in the long run.

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