Zuck: Privacy Is the 'Third Rail'

Facebook founder opens up for rare interview
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 13, 2010 7:55 AM CDT
Zuck: Privacy Is the 'Third Rail'
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, looks back at the annual Allen & Co. Media summit in Sun Valley, Idaho, Wednesday, July 7, 2010.   (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Mark Zuckerberg granted a rare interview to the New Yorker, and though it discloses nothing too shocking, the Facebook founder is getting some attention for his latest comments about privacy. Highlights:

  • On privacy: Privacy is the Internet's "third-rail issue," he says. “A lot of people who are worried about privacy and those kinds of issues will take any minor misstep that we make and turn it into as big a deal as possible. We realize that people will probably criticize us for this for a long time, but we just believe that this is the right thing to do.”
  • On that time he called his customers "dumb f**ks" for trusting him: He "absolutely" regrets it, and says, “I think I’ve grown and learned a lot.”

  • On his first trip to Silicon Valley: “I remember flying in, driving down 101 in a cab, and passing by all these tech companies like Yahoo!. I remember thinking, Maybe someday we’ll build a company. This probably isn’t it, but one day we will.”
  • Zuck's girlfriend on her first impression: “He was this nerdy guy who was just a little bit out there. I remember he had these beer glasses that said ‘pound include beer dot H.’ It’s a tag for C++. It’s like college humor but with a nerdy, computer-science appeal.”
  • Why Facebook is blue: Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind, and "blue is the richest color for me—I can see all of blue.”
For the complete profile, click here. For more on Zuckerberg, click here. (More Mark Zuckerberg stories.)

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