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August 30, 2008 2:00:54 AM CDT

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Facebook CEO Apologizes for Ad System

Posted Dec 5, 07 5:07 PM CST in Technology 

(Newser) – Facebook CEO's apologized today for the company's new advertising system and told users they can disable it, the Wall Street Journal reports. The system, which tracks users' web activities, raised a firestorm of complaints over privacy concerns. "We've made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we've made even more with how we've handled them," Mark Zuckerberg wrote on the company's blog.

Zuckerberg says Facebook did not take privacy concerns seriously enough at the outset. Still, critics worry about the increasing use of user information listed on social networking sites for marketing purposes. "This (apology) is an attempt to hope the privacy mob will simply disappear into the digital ozone," said a consumer advocate.

Source Wall Street Journal

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Facebook worker Ginnie Chan, left, works at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., Monday, Feb. 5, 2007. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)   (Associated Press)
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg listens to a question during a talk at Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)   (Associated Press)
A female college student uses the Facebook website in this undated file photo.   (Getty Images)
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