Facebook was 'the first innovator in privacy,' COO says

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg says Mark Zuckerberg has "been a leader" in online privacy.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Facebook routinely gets itself in hot water over privacy issues, a problem that led this week to a settlement with federal regulators and an agreement that Facebook will undergo regular audits of its compliance with its privacy promises.

But in Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg's eyes, the company is a trailblazer. At a technology conference Thursday morning, she referred to Facebook as "the first innovator in privacy."

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"Mark [Zuckerberg] is really a product visionary," she said during a presentation at Business Insider's Ignition conference in New York City. "The thing he's actually been a leader in is privacy."

Before Facebook, the Web was typically divided into two privacy realms: open and closed. For example, e-mail is completely private, while a blog is public.

Sandberg says Facebook pioneered the happy medium. "What Facebook actually came up with is privacy that you can control," she said. "If you want to have people share, you have to give them control over data."

Sandberg emphasized that every Facebook product rollout comes with a set of privacy controls.

But those controls -- which many users consider complicated and wonky -- have been a continued point of tension between the social network and its members. Few users adjust the default settings, and Facebook has steadily increased the amount of information that gets shared by default.

The social network has backtracked multiple times in the wake of user blow-ups.

Facebook CEO: 'We've made mistakes' on privacy

In May 2010, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post publicly apologizing for the company's privacy mistakes. This week, following Facebook's settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over privacy violations, he penned another mea culpa note.

"Overall, I think we have a good history of providing transparency and control over who can see your information," Zuckerberg wrote in post to Facebook's blog. "That said, I'm the first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes."

The issue is freshly relevant thanks to Facebook's recently launched Ticker, a real-time broadcast of everything users do through Facebook's new wave of "social apps." Those apps broadcast what Facebook members are reading, listening to and doing around the Web.

 

0:00 / 2:41 New Facebook features: Your life on display

With 800 million users, "not everyone understands [privacy controls]," Sandberg admitted.

But she thinks much of the backlash that inevitably follows Facebook changes stems from users' frustration at adjusting to new experiences. Sandberg cited Facebook's favorite example: The outcry that followed its 2006 introduction of the News Feed.

"News Feed was pushing information to you ... but at the time 10% of users were on groups protesting that," Sandberg said. "Fast forward to today, people not only accept them but demand them."

That's why Facebook keeps pushing the boundaries.

"Mark's biggest fear is the lack of innovation, so we have challenged users," Sandberg said. "Those changes have enabled us to grow to 800 million users plus."

And Facebook isn't backing down from its belief that most of your life should be shared with the people you choose to let in: "The ultimate vision is definitely not to control everything, but the ultimate vision is everything is better when it's social," Sandberg said.

In classic Facebook fashion, she realized a moment later how that sounded -- and backtracked.

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Chrome usage within striking distance of Firefox

If one in 50 people on the Web move fromFirefox to Chrome, Google's browser will unseat Mozilla's for the No. 2 spot in worldwide usage.

That's because, according to Net Applications' November browser usage measurements, Chrome is now within 4 percentage points of Firefox. With a 2 percentage-point increase in one and a 2 percentage-point decrease in the other, Google comes out on top.

Firefox dropped 0.4 percentage point to 22.1 percent of usage in November, while Chrome gained 0.7 percent to 18.2 percent. If that rate was to continue, Chrome would outpace Firefox in March 2012, but fluctuations make such predictions difficult.

Firefox once was the prime challenger to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which for years languished in the doldrums of software development. Now it shares that role with Chrome and, to a lesser degree, Apple'sSafari. Microsoft is in high gear again, though, with IE9 a credible challenger and IE10 shaping up to be a strong competitor when it's finished in 2012.

The browser market is now fiercely competitive as browser makers use the software to drive their agendas. For Microsoft, it's about the Metro user interface in Windows 8; for Google, it's browsing speed and Web applications; for Mozilla, it's a Web built on openness and standards; and for Apple, the best mobile devices.

In the mobile market, Apple's Safari dominates, while Opera Mini and the Android browser jockey for second place.

(Credit: Net Applications)

In November, IE's steady decline stopped, with Microsoft's browser holding steady at 56.2 percent of usage. Microsoft has largely written off Windows XP users by requiring Windows Vista orWindows 7 for its current IE9. The company measures its performance by Windows 7 usage. there, IE9 passed Chrome and Firefox in usage and now trails only IE8.

The vast majority of browser usage today is from personal computers--92.2 percent. But with smartphones and tablets, mobile-device usage is generally increasing. In November, it reached a record 6.7 percent, according to Net Applications.

The top mobile browser by far is Apple's Safari, but it plunged 7 percentage points to 55.0 percent of usage in November. The Android browser had bumped Opera Mini aside in October for the second-place spot, but in November, Opera Mini clawed its way back. Opera's lightweight browser, which runs on thousands of phones, surged 7 percentage points to 20.1 percent, while the Android browser dropped 2.2 percentage points to 16.4 percent.

Opera also offers a full-fledged browser, Opera Mobile, for higher-end smartphones. But that remains relatively rare at 0.4 percent of mobile browser usage.

Mobile browser usage is small but growing.

(Credit: Net Applications)

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Some mobile users are so eager for Apple's latest iPhone that they'll break their wireless contracts to grab one.

 

 

 

 

 

Almost half (45 percent) of iPhone buyers recently polled by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) said they paid a penalty to cancel their contract just to pick up theiPhone 4S. Some switched carriers while others upgraded before their contract ended.

Among these iPhone buyers, 52 percent paid a penalty of $100 to $200, 28 percent paid a penalty of less than $100, and 20 percent shelled out more than $200. But the pain has been felt less byiPhone 4 users, who can typically resell their still-in-demand models for more than the cost of the cancellation fee, noted CIRP.

Among those who upgraded from earlier iPhones, 10 percent moved up from the original 2007 model, 48 percent jumped from the iPhone 3G and 3GS, and 42 percent from the iPhone 4.

Those who upgraded tended to choose the lower-priced 16GB iPhone 4S, while new buyers opted for the more high-end 32GB and 64GB flavors, according to the survey results. Overall, 71 percent of iPhone 4S buyers upgraded from a previous iPhone, while 29 percent were new to the iPhone world.

Among those who switched sides to buy an iPhone, 51 percent had owned an Android device, 42 percent came from a BlackBerry, and 7 percent jumped from a Palm device.
Retail stores took in 57 percent of iPhone sales, with online vendors scooping up 43 percent. CIRP found that Apple, through its retail outlets and Web site, had sold 25 percent of all iPhones.

And with 5,000 stores collectively, the three carriers--Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint--gobbled up 58 percent of all sales, while Best Buy accounted for 13 percent.

To compile its study, CIRP sent an online questionnaire to different social networks from October 31 to November 10. From the 4,631 people who responded, 504 had bought an iPhone on or after October 14 when the iPhone 4S launched and prices dropped for the iPhone 4 and 3GS.

iPhone sales have been stronger than expected this quarter thanks in part to the impact from all three U.S. carriers, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz. Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint have all expressed surprise over the strong demand for the iPhone 4S as well as the 4 and 3GS models, said the analyst.

But the reduced pricing on the iPhone 4 and 3GS is also triggering robust sales around the world, especially in China and other emerging markets.

Heavy demand for the entire iPhone family has prompted Moskowitz to raise his estimate on shipments for the fourth quarter. The analyst said he now expects Apple to ship 28 million iPhones for the final quarter of the year, up from his prior forecast of 25.3 million.

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