Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned 30 this week, making his first 30 years alive as one of the wealthiest individuals on the planet, taking the idea of a social network into a global institution. He also announced that Facebook would be launching new security measures to meet the privacy desired by many of its over one billion users.
While numerous media outlets rehashed his failures, successes and his forced entry into the public spotlight over the ownership and control of Facebook, made even more poignant following the widely successful The Social Network film that showcased the dispute between Zuckerberg and his fellow founders.
But at the heart of Zuckerberg's mission is the people on Facebook, and with concerns continuing to rise over the security of online websites and social media following the NSA surveillance debacle and the Heartbleed Bug that revealed many weaknesses in the programming of websites, he aims to curtail concerns users may have over their security and personal information.
"Over the years one of the things we've heard over and over again is that people want more control over how they share their information, especially with apps," Zuckerberg says.
He continues that "if people don't have the tools they need to feel comfortable using your apps than that's bad for them and it's bad for you" and that "we need to do everything we can to put people first and give people the tools they need to sign in and trust (your) apps."
Thus he introduced the world to new security aims that will help limit third party trolls from gaining vital personal information, including bank account information, through the social network. He also says that users will be able to have anonymous logins, making it even more difficult for outsiders to capture any information and hack into accounts.
"We know that some people are scared about pressing this blue (Login with Facebook) button," says Zuckerberg. "If you're using an app that you don't completely trust or you're worried might spam your friends, than you're not going to give it a lot of permissions."
That is a positive step, most analysts agree, in helping to move Facebook forward in the heightened culture of cybersecurity that is developing.
