If you Google the words "Facebook" and "privacy," you are likely to come up with a few thousand news stories and blog entries. After weeks of talk about everything from government regulation to user boycotts, Facebook officials revamped their site's privacy controls to add a dose of simplicity to what some contended had become too complex a process. The changes will be rolled out to all 400 million of the site’s users in the coming weeks. But what do those changes mean, and what will they look like? Here at eWEEK, we have the answers.
Update 5/28: While Zuckerberg's changes have garnered praise in some corners, some privacy groups say the Facebook privacy control updates do not go far enough. The fundamental issue, critics say, is that Facebook's approach to privacy is for users to opt-out of sharing information instead of opting-in.
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How to Control Facebook's New Privacy Settings
by Brian Prince
One Control to Rule Them All
Facebook has created one control for content shared with either "friends," "friends of friends" or "everyone." Users can still customize their settings as well. These settings will appear on one page for ease of use.
Controlling How You Share with Facebook Apps
When Facebook made privacy changes in December 2009, one of the points of contention was that Facebook apps could grab information deemed public. Facebook has now made it easier for users to turn off sharing with Facebook Platform applications as well as control what information applications can access.
What App Developers Need to Know
Starting June 30, your application will only be able to read the publicly available information of a user's profile by default. To get access to other parts of the user's profile, your application must explicitly request all of the data it needs to function. For example, if you want to incorporate a user's photos into your application, you would request the user_photos extended permission.
Personal Info on the Menu
Facebook has reduced the amount of information considered public, meaning data about you that is always available for people searching for you. Your name, profile pic, gender and networks are still considered public information. Other information, like your hometown and favorite activities, is not—but it is still visible by default.
Opting Out of Instant Personalization
The site has sought to make it easier to opt out of the instant personalization feature it unveiled in April. The feature shared information with third-party sites using Facebook plug-ins, and set off weeks of debate about the site’s attitude toward user privacy.
Privacy Center Reloaded
Facebook updated its privacy center to include new information about the changes.
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If you Google the words "Facebook" and "privacy," you are likely to come up with a few thousand news stories and blog entries. After weeks of talk about everything from government regulation to user boycotts, Facebook officials revamped their site's privacy controls to add a dose of simplicity to what some contended had become too complex a process. The changes will be rolled out to all 400 million of the site’s users in the coming weeks. But what do those changes mean, and what will they look like? Here at eWEEK, we have the answers.
Update 5/28: While Zuckerberg's changes have garnered praise in some corners, some privacy groups say the Facebook privacy control updates do not go far enough. The fundamental issue, critics say, is that Facebook's approach to privacy is for users to opt-out of sharing information instead of opting-in.