In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post, the 26-year-old, described by Forbes as one of the world's youngest billionaires, said Facebook had grown in the past six years to have more than 400 million activer users
"It's a challenge to keep that many people satisfied over time, so we move quickly to serve that community with new ways to connect with the social Web and each other," he said.
" Sometimes we move too fast - and after listening to recent concerns we're responding.
"Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls; but that may not have been what many of you wanted. We just missed the mark."
In an email to tech blogger Robert Scoble, a long-time friend, he was a little less circumspect.
"I know we've made a bunch of mistakes, but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that our intentions are in the right place and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve."
Zuckerberg said Facebook would add privacy controls that are much simpler to use in the next few weeks.
The site would also give users an easy way to turn off all third-party services.
"We are working hard to make these changes available as soon as possible."
The social media site has faced a firestorm of criticism since changing privacy settings earlier this year, along with unwanted attention from government authorities.
Concerns have centred on the complexity and 'opt-out' approach to sharing member information with wider networks.
The New York Times reported that people wanting to manage their privacy on Facebook now needed to navigate through 50 settings with more than 170 options.
