12 May 2010 | Author: J. Morton Search Copywriter

Facebook exec defends website's privacy policies

After enduring a stormy 2010 thus far, where its initiatives to further connect disparate areas of the web and impending user mapping have taken a backseat to rails against its privacy policy, one executive of social site Facebook has stepped forward to address concerns in the international media.

Accepting questions regarding Facebook's approach to privacy through a blog posting and its own Facebook portal, the New York Times compiled a list of consumer concerns, with vice president of public policy Elliot Schrage fielding questions for the recently vilified company.

Schrage described reading some of the concerns as "painful", but said that he and the company empathised with people questioning their policies.

"It's clear that despite our efforts, we are not doing a good enough job communicating the changes that we're making," Schrage said.

Responding to allegations about the website's personal data sharing from a reader who asked, "Why can't you leave well enough alone?", Schrage insisted that the company would "do better", and that it is a misconception that Facebook uses personal information for anything other than to target a demographic, likening its activities to that of magazine sales.

Schrage also defended the expanded public information available to searches when a profile is not listed as 'public', but said most categories were up to users to decide.

"Other than name and gender, nothing requires them to complete these [other] fields or share information they do not want to share," he said. "If you're not comfortable sharing, don't."

He said that Facebook's reaching out across the wider world web, which he feels is a real-life upside to the site's recent changes - hasn't necessitated sharing user data with any external sites, and that the advertisements, which continue to fund the site unaided, "complement, rather than interrupt, the user experience."

Throughout the interview, which can be viewed in its entirety at NYTimes.com, Schrage strikes an apologetic tone, but gives no indication of any upcoming policy changes with the social giant.