Like anyone should be surprised but Facebook is sorry – really, really sorry – that it caused such a fuss by changing its privacy policies so dramatically recently.

But after “listening to recent concerns”, Facebook is “responding” with plans to add “privacy controls that are much simpler”, as well as making it easy to turn off all third-party services. And Facebook has published the “principles” under which it operates.

Zuckerberg cleared the air in an op-ed in the Washington Post. It’s a public “my bad”, which demonstrates that Facebook took notice of the critics raging against its plan to make pretty much everything public on Facebook.

And although Facebook is still the monster of social networks with more than 450 million users, it also had to acknowledge that there was growing interest and media coverage in other social networks such as Diadora and even Facebook.

But make no mistake: what Facebook has pulled off is a classic two steps forward, one step back move. In appearing as if it’s backing away from its new policies, Facebook is hoping to stave off the privacy critics. The reality, however, is Facebook’s still making more of your information public as it attempts to generate more revenue and traffic.

It is also important to remember that Facebook isn’t backing away from its new public approach at all. Instead, it’s making it less confusing to change your privacy settings if, in fact, you go to the trouble of changing them. The sad reality is many people aren’t that concerned about their privacy on Facebook even though they should be.

For more, check out the wave of coverage on Techmeme, including this story in The Atlantic.