Apple's Ping, a music-focused social-networking service for iTunes users, was introduced this week, and the company is promising simple and straightforward privacy controls, indicating companies are now seeing the potential for privacy as grounds on which to compete, The New York Times reports. "You can get as private or as public as you want," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said of Ping, noting the device's privacy settings are "super simple." Citing recent privacy issues for large Web and social networking companies, Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said Jobs' remarks show "privacy is very much on the minds of companies offering social-network services," and Ryan Calo of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society suggested the comments show that companies are responding to public demands for simple privacy controls. (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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