Begich still unhappy with new Facebook features

The new features led Begich along with Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.) last month to petition the Federal Trade Commission to establish best practices for social network privacy. According to those lawmakers, who first aired their concerns in a letter, Facebook executives should not have automatically opted all users into the new system. Moreover, they asserted the social network made it too difficult for its users to decline participation.

Facebook has tried to address some of those criticisms — meeting with lawmakers, taking users’ questions online and reportedly considering changes to its privacy settings pages. While media reports suggest users’ frustration with Facebook is growing, a company spokesman told Hillicon Valley later on Thursday that well over 100,000 sites had implemented its new social plug-ins — up from just 75 when Facebook introduced those features on April 21.

“Our new features are providing beneficial new social experiences to people around the world that are transparent, consistent with user expectations. We understand there are some concerns and we are working to address them,” said Facebook’s Andrew Noyes.