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Facebook unveils new, easy to use privacy settings
Faced with a potential mass exodus by Facebook users to other social networking sites because of cumbersome privacy settings and the perception that advertisers were using member’s information, Facebook has simplified the privacy control settings to give users more control over their information.
The new privacy settings will give users the power to either share their information – photos, birthday and contact information – or not share their information with the click of one button.
There are now only four privacy setting options compared to the previous 40 to 50 privacy setting options that confused users. You can choose to show your information to Everyone, friends of friends, friends only or follow Facebook’s privacy recommendations.
“You can think of ‘Everyone,’ ‘Friends,’ and ‘Friends Only’ as big buckets containing different groups of information,” the new controls page reads. “With our recommended settings, your information is distributed across all three buckets.”
Facebook is recommending, however, that users leave there status, photos, posts, bio,and family and relationship connections open to everyone, while tagged photos and videos, religious and political views, birthday, email and phone numbers should be more private.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg issued a mea culpa in a Washington Post op-ed column on Monday prior to implementing the new privacy settings. Zuckerberg wrote in the post, “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. “We have heard the feedback. There needs to be a simple way to control your information. In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use. We will also give you an easy way to turn off all third-party services. We are working hard to make these changes available as soon as possible. We hope you’ll be pleased with the result of our work and, as always, we’ll be eager to get your feedback.”
