Welcome to Facebook.Welcome to Facebook.

Texas State UniversityOctober 17, 2006

What is our idea of Facebook?What is our idea of Facebook?

Facebook is a social utility that allows people to share information with their real world community

What is important to us:– User Control: people should have control over their

information

– Authenticity: ability to interact with others as themselves

– Accessibility: Facebook is becoming part of peoples’ daily lives

Mission:Provide people with the information that matters to them most

How does it work?How does it work?

• Users are strongly encouraged to validate identity• College: school issued .edu email address• High School: school issued email address or invited by validated

member• Work Networks: company or organization issued .com/.net/.org• Regional Networks: unaffiliated users have special rules restricting

connections and are strongly pushed to validate into communities

• Nearly all users join a primary community• College, high school, company or organization• Profile views are by default restricted to those within validated

communities• Facebook Groups & Events provide additional affinities

• Facebook is a core part of millions of young peoples’ lives• Authentication and connection with real world community leads to

deeper bonds and trust

Four Levels of ProtectionFour Levels of Protection• Authentication:

• Strong promotion of validated email addresses/invitation system means reasonable confirmation of membership in particular communities and connection to real identity

• Retains social norms and fosters sense of accountability, deterring misuse

• Segmented Communities • Validation in communities lets users easily identify who doesn’t belong• Built-in Neighborhood Watch

• Innovative Privacy Controls & Technical Protections• Users have extensive power to decide who can see their profile• Facebook technical protections constantly measuring anomalous usage

• Outstanding Customer Service• 30+ experts on the site (recent college graduates) headed by the

former worldwide director of customer support for Palm Computing• Specialized investigations staff within Customer Service• Work directly with law enforcement on rare problems and require proper

legal process for all information inquiries

How do you use Facebook responsibly?How do you use Facebook responsibly?

• Don’t post anything that you don’t want someone to know• The universe of who might see your information, even though

constrained by network and Facebook privacy controls, may be broader than you want.

• That being said, Facebook is different from most networking sites in that there are default controls on who can see your information.

• Add friends responsibly• Information sharing is about reflecting and building trust.

• Use your My Privacy settings to reflect your comfort level• Facebook is the industry leader in providing you control over who

sees your information. Use our tools.• For more information view our recent collaboration with the

Ontario, Canada Information Privacy Commissioner at http://www.ipc.on.ca/docs/facebook-ipc.pdf

What is your idea of Facebook?What is your idea of Facebook?

• Facebook listens extensively to its user base• Feed update happened within 72 hours of launch.• Implementation of additional search privacy preceded

launch of expanded registration because of user suggestions.

• Future directions are regularly drawn from the suggestion queue (and some product visionaries on staff)

• Use your voice!