Facebook Plans to Simplify Privacy Settings

July 1, 2009 - 11:44 pm | 10 views

Technology.am (July 1, 2009) — 3Privacy has been a central issue for Facebook because people use it to share personal information with their friends and family. Facebook needs to give its users, who come from different cultures, age groups, more control over what they share on the site.

When the Facebook has expanded its user base and added features, its privacy controls have grown increasingly complicated. Now Facebook is modernizing its privacy controls over the next several weeks.

The new settings will give people greater control over what photos, updates and personal details they share with their friends, family and strangers on Facebook and, eventually, the wider Internet.

The site will soon let users assign different privacy settings to each piece of information they make available, including photos, contact information and work info, as well as status updates, links and photos.

Facebook is merging its existing six privacy pages and more than 30 settings onto a single privacy page to make the settings easier. It will also standardize the options for each setting so the choices are always the same.

That means that for various pieces of content, users will be able to click on a lock icon to choose whether to show it to everyone, only their friends, friends of friends, members of professional or school networks or people on a customized list.

Previously, users had to navigate page after page to exclude, if they want, bosses or co-workers from seeing their photo albums, status updates or shared links. And because the privacy settings were dispersed on different pages, even after making a profile visible to friends only, the photos on that profile could remain public.

The site is also getting rid of its regional networks. Facebook said those separate zones have led to too much confusion over which information can be widely seen or kept relatively private.

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