Exclusive: Facebook CEO stops short of extending European privacy globally

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday that he agreed "in spirit" with a strict new European Union law on data privacy but stopped short of committing to it as the standard for the social network across the world.

As Facebook reels from a scandal over the mishandling of personal information belonging to millions of users, the company is facing demands to improve privacy and learn lessons from the landmark EU law scheduled to take effect next month.

Zuckerberg told Reuters in a phone interview that Facebook was working on a version of the law that would work globally, bringing some European privacy guarantees worldwide, but the 33-year-old billionaire demurred when asked what parts of the law he would not extend worldwide.