Facebook has endured another storm of PR hell in recent weeks, as
mainstream media and the blogosphere pounds away at its "open
disdain" for privacy. CEO Mark Zuckerberg's dorm-room
IMs haven't helped. And the recent storm is only the latest in a
long line of such storms, dating back to the site's very beginnings.
And the concern and howls are understandable: Facebook often shares way more information with the world than its users know, expect, or want. It consistently approaches innovation and privacy changes with a do-it-first-and-then-see-what-happens attitude, which enrages those who feel it should ask permission first. And it has often done a bad job of explaining to users what it is doing, why, and when, as well as what control users have over this.
But Facebook's aggressiveness on the privacy front is a big reason for the site's success. The company will survive the latest PR flap, just as it has survived all the other PR flaps. And unless the latest blow-up scares it into changing its ways (let's hope not), Facebook will continuing growing like a weed until it is by far the most popular web site in the world (and note what "most popular" means: It means that, despite the howling of a tiny minority, more people choose to spend more time on Facebook than any other site in the world).
To read the full, original article click on this link: Facebook's Approach To Innovation Is The Secret To Its Success
Author: Henry Blodget
