Mark Zuckerberg, founder of social networking site Facebook, has issued a statement apologising for the way the company introduced an advertising system recently. Since its launch around a month ago, the Beacon ad system, as it is known, has created a great deal of controversy.
The advertising platform tracks Facebook users' transactions on third-party sites and transforms these actions into endorsements, which are subsequently inserted into their friends' "news feeds".
Members of the site were automatically opted in to the programme and could only opt out on a case-by-case basis.
In response to complaints, however, Facebook has altered Beacon from an opt-out to an opt-in system and users can now activate a privacy function which switches it off entirely.
In a statement, Mr Zuckerberg acknowledged: "We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them.
"We simply did a bad job with this release and I apologise for it. While I am disappointed with our mistakes, we appreciate all the feedback we have received from our users."
The aim of Beacon, he added, was to create a "simple product" which enabled people to share information across sites with their friends.
Mr Zuckerberg conceded, however, that Facebook did not achieve the "right balance" and took too long to respond to initial complaints.
According to the BBC, over 50,000 Facebook users signed a petition registering their opposition to Beacon.
