Facebook’s Big Privacy Changes

Facebook’s rapid growth to 350 million users has prompted it to make more changes to how its users control their privacy. In a post on the company’s blog, Facebook’s privacy product manager Ruchi Sanghvi explains that everyone will need to review and update their privacy settings. This will be a popup window that will come on when you log in to Facebook and force you to make some vital privacy decisions before continuing.

The social networking giant is touting these changes as simplifying its settings. It is apparent though that they are promoting for users to use their recommended settings, since you still have to go into your privacy controls afterwards to make any changes other than what they recommend. Members can still share their content with only friends, friends of friends, everyone or make customs lists. Facebook is also giving users the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content they create or upload. You can still limit who sees tagged embarrassing photos, for example. You can also limit your picture albums individually now.

Facebook has posted this new privacy video explaining how the new system works and making suggestions for your privacy settings. It is important to note that if you want anything other than your old settings or those that are recommended by Facebook you will still need to go to your privacy setting tab to ensure you are achieving an acceptable level of privacy.

As Facebook’s recommendations tend to the liberal side of information sharing, I would recommend that you check your individual setting after you have gone through the new automatic system. Considering that Google’s will be searching Facebook pages, you may not want everyone having access to all of your information. Once it is out there, you can’t bring it back.

By: Chris Randall, Technical Director