TechPulse 360

Facebook created an extraordinary Web presence by giving members a place to link to friends, post personal information and see the personal information of others.

We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard, says Mark Zuckerberg

Now it is taking another exceptional step: it is giving users the opportunity to review, comment and potentially vote on policy changes proposed for its terms of service.

The change isn’t pure altruism. Earlier this month, the company changed its terms of service to give it greater freedom with the personal data people post on the site, even after they cancel their memberships. The policy changes unleashed a firestorm of protest from privacy groups.

On Thursday, Facebook said users would have a role in determining future policies.

“I think we really underestimated the sense of ownership Facebook users have in the site,” said founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call. “We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard.”

The company’s plan will offer users the opportunity to review changes before they are enacted and to comment. Based on the number of comments – and how controversial a change becomes – a vote will be held, most likely giving members the chance to pick from a number of options.

“It will help strengthen the community,” said Zuckerberg. “We can’t just put up new terms of service without everyone’s permission.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 1:13 pm and is filed under news, startups, web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.