14 DAY TRIAL // "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 apologize for it. . . . Instead of acting quickly, we took too long to decide on the right solution. I'm not proud of the way we've handled this situation and I know we can do better." This is the way Mark Zuckberg tried in a blog to start apologizing for all the company's mistakes in the Beacon advertising program's privacy disaster.
To this he also noted that additional levels of privacy control have been added, which let Facebook members opt out of Beacon for good and not just on a case-by-case basis, as the previous "privacy update" offered the option.
He further explained the way Beacon had been conceived and perceived by its creators: "When we first thought of Beacon, our goal was to build a simple product to let people share information across sites with their friends. It had to be lightweight so it wouldn't get in people's way as they browsed the web, but also clear enough so people would be able to easily control what they shared. We were excited about Beacon because we believe a lot of information people want to share isn't on Facebook, and if we found the right balance, Beacon would give people an easy and controlled way to share more of that information with their friends."
It is not very much to build on after such a huge PR problem, but it's definitely better than nothing. The problem seems to be that Zuckberg is still trailing in attitude and mentality, his press conference giving the best demonstration of this. When asked if he thought that Beacon would put off the people that wanted to use the social network's services, he changed at 180 degrees and with a tone that left no place for interpretation said that "[Facebook] is an ad-supported service". Its users, he implied by that, have no right to complain because what they are getting, are actually getting for free.
That's a bit of a slapdash answer. He's not going to get far with that, perhaps stepping down is the best solution for him at the moment.