Facebook CEO Mark Zuckberberg has had a tough few weeks.

At a Facebook developer's conference on April 21, he announced some changes to Facebook's privacy policy, including the "Instant Personalization" program that "connects" Facebook members' information on some third-party sites, including Yelp and Pandora. He also announced that, going forward, application developers would be able to hang on to user information indefinitely, rather than having to purge the information from their servers daily. The developers in the audience cheered these announcements, but some of Facebook's critics jeered them, touching off a backlash that has spawned a movement to quit the social network and has prompted several elected officials, including New York Senator Charles Schumer, to encourage the Federal Trade Commission to look into the way Facebook handles personal information.

Based on conversations I've had with Facebook employees, the negative reaction to these privacy changes caught many at Facebook by surprise and forced employees and management to re-think the way they handle user information. On Wednesday, the company held a press conference to announce some changes to its privacy policy and settings, including what Zuckerberg referred to in a blog post as "one simple control to set who can see the content you post."

A few hours after the press conference, I sat down with Zuckerberg at Facebook's Palo Alto, Calif., offices to talk about how he has reacted to all of the recent concern about privacy, how it affected him personally, and how he responds to critics, including those behind "Quit Facebook Day" this coming Monday (scroll down to listen to podcast).

Zuckerberg referred to the past few weeks as "intense." He said that feedback from their announcement at F8 "has been really constructive and the main thing we heard is that people want simpler controls over how they share information on Facebook."

Response to Quit Facebook Day
When asked about the Quit Facebook Day and the Diaspora project, a newly announced open-source alternative to Facebook, he said, "Some people are going to be critical and are going to have feedback, and we want to listen to that feedback. But, overall, it doesn't seem like a big movement." He added that, "The same number of people are promoting Facebook to their friends and encouraging them to sign up now as were before all this, and the same number of people are sharing the same number of things as they were before." He said that "some people have talked about deactivating, but those numbers haven't changed either."

Can Facebook make money and not mine user data?
I asked Zuckerberg to respond to the often repeated concern that for Facebook to grow and be valued as a multibillion-dollar company, it needs to do more than just put up ads but monetize through mining users' information. Can the company meet its financial goals and not do things that get people angry and worry them? "The answer is clearly yes," he said. "We've focused on keeping the advertising on the site very minimal and sparse...We run a lot less ads than a lot of other sites do...The reason why we don't have to is because the ads work well and we're making enough money to support ourselves...Over the long term, the best thing we can do is build products that help people share and stay connected with the people they care about." He said that, "If we do that people will use our products, and if they use our products we make money from advertising."

Zuckerberg said, "there are all these misperceptions of how our site works." He said, "There has been this rumor going around that's completely not true, which is that we give information to advertisers, and we don't." He continued, "We don't sell any information, and we never will." He added that "the site works because we help you share information; when you do that, you're more engaged on the site. There are ads on the side of the page, the more you're sharing...the model just all works out."

Done making privacy changes
I asked Zuckberberg about "privacy policy change fatigue." This isn't the first time Facebook has backtracked from changes in its privacy policies. There was the Beacon program, which was eventually canceled after user complaints, and there was pushback from the privacy policy change announced last December.

Zuckerberg responded that "privacy is a very sensitive issue that a lot of people care about, so, yes, we have to be careful about it." He said, "We've been working on these changes to our privacy system for the last six months, but now we're done. We're not go to make changes for a long time." He said that "the simple control applies not only to stuff you've shared in the past but to new products and services that we launch going forward" so that people can "set the level of privacy that they want to have and that will exist for a long time. No more changes."

In the rest of the interview, we talked about Zuckerberg's general attitudes toward privacy, including how he says he tries to protect his own information. We also talked about the possibility of children under 13 being allowed on Facebook (it's not likely to happen, he says), Zuckerberg's desire to continue to expand internationally, and the fact that Facebook is blocked by a lot of schools.

When I asked him about what he's excited about going forward, he said it included working with other sites and game developers to make their applications more social.

Listen to the entire 13-minute interview with Mark Zuckerberg.

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Turns out that not all black holes are created equal.

Astronomers have long wondered why some black holes - roughly one percent - emit vast amounts of energy - as much as 10 billion suns. Now NASA astronomers have come up with a theory about these active galactic nuclei (or AGN). Actually, it's a confirmation of a theory they harbored; based on data collected by NASA's orbiting Swift satellite, scientists now trace the answer to the collision and merger of different galaxies.

"Theorists have shown that the violence in galaxy mergers can feed a galaxy's central black hole," said Michael Koss, the study's lead author and a graduate student at the University of Maryland in College Park. "The study elegantly explains how the black holes switched on."Continue »

So you think you've got problems? Give thanks that you're not a blobfish.

This gelatinous deep sea fish, found in waters near the coasts of Australia and Tasmania, may not make it to the end of the century - let alone the end of the current decade. Not because the fish is winding up on diners' plates, mind you  - its "meat" is not edible - but because fishing trawlers increasingly are pulling them into their nets along with the rest of their daily hauls.

Earlier this year, marine expert Callum Roberts rang the alarm in an interview with the United Kingdom's Daily Telegraph. Even though the blobfish is rarely seen by humans - it lives about 800 meters below the ocean's surface - he said that the deep trawling fishing fleets operated by Australia and New Zealand "are some of the most active in the world so if you are a blobfish then it is not a good place to be. A very large amount of the deep sea is under threat from bottom trawling which is one of the most destructive forms of fishing."

One more strike against the blobfish: Unlike baby seals or dolphins or other sea animals deemed by humans to be "cute," this little fella is never going to win a beauty contest. Unfortunately, that means the ranks of any "save the blobfish" movement were one to spring up - likely will be limited.

In response to recent widespread criticism over changes made to its privacy policy in April, Facebook announced today that it has modified its user controls to make it easier to configure privacy settings and to retroactively control access to content that has already been posted. The company also said that it has "drastically reduced the amount of information that is available to everyone."

Facebook also promised to "carry over people's privacy choices for new products that facilitate sharing" and the company pledged to make fewer privacy changes in the future. "Facebook recognizes that the many privacy-related changes over the past year may have caused confusion, and the company will work within the framework announced today as it continues to innovate new features and products," it said in a release. Continue »

Updated to reflect stock changes as Apple passed Microsoft as regular trading drew to a close.

Apple has long been the little guy in the Mac vs. PC debate, but that's no longer the case.

As of trading near the end of the day on Tuesday, Apple has passed up Microsoft in terms of market capitalization, with a value of roughly $222 billion--about $3 billion ahead of Microsoft. Apple had been flirting with the milestone for days and had already passed Microsoft by another measure--a valuation known as enterprise value which adds in debt and other factors.

The fact that Apple, not Microsoft, is the more valuable franchise represents a remarkable turn of events in the history of computing.

Consider this: As recently as 1997, Michael Dell suggested Apple should just close up shop and return the money to shareholders. Today, Dell is worth barely a tenth as much as the Mac maker.

That same year, Apple had to accept a $150 million investment from Microsoft. Bill Gates famously appeared at Macworld via satellite, dwarfing the on-stage Steve Jobs as he announced the company's commitment to the Mac.

Of course, all that was before Mac OS X, the iPod, the iPhone and now the iPad. The Cube and Apple TV aside, Apple has had an incredible run of products over the last decade.

Read the rest of this article at CNET News.com.

Facebook is announcing new features to its service that it says will give users simpler privacy choices -a move the company also hopes will end the controversy around its privacy policies.

In the last several weeks, Facebook has come under fire both from Congress and privacy activists over the amount of user data that gets exposed on the site.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is headlining the event and our sister site, CNET News.com, is on hand live-blogging from the announcement.

After a spate of suicides at Hon Hai Industries' Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, three of the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer's largest clients have said they're organizing their own investigations into the conditions of the factory.

"We are saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn," Apple said in a statement Wednesday to Bloomberg. "Apple is deeply committed to ensuring that conditions throughout our supply chain are safe and workers are treated with respect and dignity. We are in direct contact with Foxconn senior management and we believe they are taking this matter very seriously."

Foxconn builds iPhones, iPods, and MacBooks for Apple.

Dell, which orders some of its laptops from Foxconn, is looking into the matter as well. "We expect our suppliers to employ the same high standards we do in our own facilities. We enforce these standards through a variety of tools, including the Electronics Industry code of conduct, business reviews with suppliers, self-assessments and audits."

Read the full story on CNET News.com.

The United States Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Apple's business tactics in the digital music field, according to a report in the New York Times.

Although the inquiry is described as preliminary, the Times quotes sources familiar with the investigation saying that "investigators asked in particular about recent allegations that Apple uses its dominant market position to persuade music labels to refuse to give another online retailer, Amazon.com, exclusive access to soon-to-be released music."

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It might not sound like a lot on first glance, but the 36 extra seconds that the average Google.com visitor spent there last Friday playing Pac-Man adds up to a massive 4.8 million wasted hours.

According to a study by RescueTime, Pac-Man on Google--the search giant on Friday replaced its home page logo with a playable version of the iconic game--cost the economy a total of 4,819,352 man-hours and a whopping $120,483,800 in lost productivity. As RescueTime put it, you could hire every single Google employee, including co-founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt, and get them for six weeks for that much money.

Still, it's hard to get too worked up over 36 extra seconds of time someone might have spent on Google.com. After all, how much time does the average person spend not doing work when other time-sucks come along, like presidential elections, sports championships, "Lost" finales, the death of celebrities like Michael Jackson and so on. Clearly, that number is an average, and so it masks that fact that some people probably lost most of their day Friday to Google's remake of the 30-year-old game.

The exit of Microsoft's two top entertainment executives on Tuesday has many wondering just what is going on within Redmond's executive offices.

Although Microsoft reorganizes itself in some way on a nearly annual basis, the departure of both Robbie Bach and J. Allard is clearly a big deal. Bach, 48, had spent two decades at Microsoft and was one of its four divisional presidents, while the 41-year-old Allard was a key visionary behind the Xbox game console and other Microsoft consumer efforts.Continue »

We're very sure these two will be right at the top of Steve Jobs' list of job candidates. Suure. Turns out that a couple of actors hoping for roles in an upcoming Apple commercial were so excited that they just had to tweet about it.

But as CNET notes, this was not just your "run-of-the-mill TV ad: One of the actors said the commercial was being directed by Sam Mendes, probably best known for American Beauty.Continue »

Here we go again. The intertwined world of social networks has led to another off-the-keyboard incident in someone's actual, non-virtual life. A 22-year-old waitress in North Carolina has been fired from her job at a Charlotte restaurant because of, yes, a facebook post.

We've already seen NFL players reprimanded for "inappropriate tweeting" (see Continue »

Microsoft shook up its entertainment and devices unit on Tuesday, with unit President Robbie Bach and Chief Technology Officer J. Allard both leaving the company.

Bach, who joined the company in 1988, is "retiring" and will leave the company in the fall, while Allard will be an adviser to CEO Steve Ballmer on "a specific set of projects," according to a Microsoft spokesman.

Read the rest of the article at CNET News.com. Meanwhile, here's the full text of the memo sent out to Microsoft employees announcing the changes: From: Steve Ballmer

Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 8:01 AM

To: Microsoft - All Employees

Subject: Executive Leadership Transitions

After almost 22 years with the company, Robbie Bach has decided to retire from Microsoft. I have worked with Robbie during his entire tenure at Microsoft, and count him as both a friend and a great business partner and leader. Robbie has always had great timing, and is going out on a high note -- this has been a phenomenal year for E&D (the entertainment and devices unit) overall, and with the coming launches of both Windows Phone 7 and "Project Natal," the rest of the year looks stupendous as well. While we are announcing Robbie's retirement today, he will remain here through the fall, ensuring we have a smooth transition.

Concurrent with Robbie's retirement, I am making several organization changes to ensure we have the right leaders in the right positions as we set ourselves up for the next big wave of products and services. Effective July 1, Don Mattrick, who leads our interactive entertainment business, and Andy Lees, who leads our mobile communications business, will report directly to me. Don and Andy have built out strong leadership teams and product pipelines, and are well-positioned for the years ahead. Independent of Robbie's decision, J Allard (currently serving as senior vice president of Design and Development for E&D), will also be leaving Microsoft. Given his ongoing passion and commitment to Microsoft, he will remain as an advisor to me, helping incubation efforts, looking at design and UI, and providing a cross-company perspective on these and similar topics. With J's change in role, corporate vice president David Treadwell will join IEB to lead the core technology organization, reporting to Don. David has a great set of accomplishments at Microsoft, most recently working on the Windows Live Platform Services team. Over the next several months, Robbie and I will work together to finalize reporting and structure for the rest of his org.

Now that Office 2010 has been launched to business customers, Antoine Leblond, senior vice president in the Office Productivity Applications Group, will take a new role as senior vice president for the Windows Web Services team. This team brings together the integral Windows services that today deliver updates, solutions, community and depth information for the Windows consumer. Kurt DelBene, senior vice president in the Office Business Productivity Group, will take on all of the engineering responsibilities for the Office business.

Transitions are always hard. Robbie has been an instrumental part of so many key moments in Microsoft history--from the evolution of Office to the decision to create the first Xbox to pushing the company hard in entertainment overall. J as well has had a great impact in the market and on our culture, providing leadership in design, and in creating a passionate and involved Xbox community, and earlier being at the center of our work seizing the importance of the Web for the company. But most important, both have been great team builders with a strong record of attracting, coaching and growing talent. As a result, their teams are primed to continue to step up and deliver great products, great services and great results for the company. Don has led the Interactive Entertainment Business since July 2007, where he's significantly grown our entertainment footprint as well as our profitability. He can count as successes the evolution of Xbox Live, the launch of blockbusters like "Halo 3" and the much-anticipated "Project Natal." Previously, Don was president of Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios. Andy has led the Mobile Communications Business since February, 2008, and has been instrumental in reinvigorating our mobility efforts, bringing in new business and development talent and overseeing the creation of both KIN and Windows Phone 7.

As we finalize and ship so many of our key products ("Project Natal," Windows Phone 7, Office 2010, Windows Live Wave 4 and others) it is a natural time for us to look ahead and make sure we have the right talent in the right roles to fuel our next set of offerings. I am confident that the changes above will set us up well for the months and years ahead.

I want to close by thanking Robbie for the incalculable contributions he has made to Microsoft over the years. He will be greatly missed when he retires this fall, and I am glad that I'll have the opportunity to continue working closely with him between now and then. And as J makes a similar transition, I look forward to working with him in a new way.

Steve

Well, whaddya know? The mayor of the Big Apple also turns out to be quite the consumer of information technology and social media - not to mention being quite the name dropper.

"I am the proud owner of a new iPad. It's amazing. I told Steve Jobs the other day if he can improve on this it will really be amazing," he said during an appearance at a conference organized by the tech web site TechCrunch.

"Every time I play with it I discover something new. And so before this morning's conference I also updated my Facebook page, sent a Tweet, browsed my Digg feed and checked in at Foursquare. And I even posted a personal on Craigstlist. (laughter) I did. Wanted: Cleveland basketball star to save basketball in the Big Apple. Whether LeBron's reading it or not, I don't know."Continue »