Image via CrunchBase

After facing severe negative reactions and criticism from all quarters about the privacy policy  which has gone to the extent of people making their mind to quit Facebook altogether and events like quitfacebook.com gaining momentum Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on a damage control exercise. He admitted that his popular social networking tool had moved “too fast” and “missed the mark” in terms of growing privacy concerns.

Writing  in the Washington Post  Zuckerberg said that his company would be responding, now that it had heard the recent concerns about users of his site lacking adequate controls over how their private information was being used.  Facebook has over 400 million users worldwide.

“The biggest message we have heard recently is that people want easier control over their information. Simply put, many of you thought our controls were too complex. Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls; but that may not have been what many of you wanted. We just missed the mark.”

Calvin Robinson, Editor of Sporkings.com who recently discussedFacebook Privacy Policy issues on Channel 4 News in the UK, still is not impressed with this face saving measure by Facebook (see video).

The critics are not pacified. Quitfacebook.com argues that Facebook “gives you choices about how to manage your data, but they aren’t fair choices, and while the onus is on the individual to manage these choices, Facebook makes it… difficult for the average user to understand or manage this.” The lobby site also argues that recent changes in Facebook’s privacy policy, allowing application developers to keep user data stored by Facebook indefinitely, are proof that the company is “further encroaching on its users’ privacy.”