Facebook introduced a host of new privacy controls on Wednesday that give users easier ways to determine who can see their posts and photos, while taking away one setting that allows the social network's members to
block their "Timeline" pages from turning up when others search for them.
The changes come as Facebook and other Internet giants face continued
questions from privacy advocates and regulators who are concerned about how
personal information is shared across the Web. Facebook is also under pressure
to expand its business, however, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has talked about
finding new ways for users to search for friends and other information on the
world's largest social network.
Facebook says its new tools should make it simpler for users to set
limits on who can see their personal information. The company is modifying its
main toolbar to include shortcuts to key privacy settings and also providing
more controls in the "activity log," where users can see how they appear in
different places on the social network.
Other changes include more explicit requests for permission to share
certain information, as well as explanations of where information may appear
on the network. These appear as the user takes actions such as downloading an
app or decide whether to remove an item from their Timeline.
Facebook is also making it easier for users to ask friends to remove
photos they don't like. Overall, the new tools are aimed at simplifying
privacy controls that have been criticized as overly complicated and confusing
in the past.
But one change may bother some users. Facebook used to have a setting
that let individuals keep their "Timeline" hidden from other users who search
for them by name. The "Timeline" is a single page for each user where most of
their photos and updates are displayed.
Facebook allows users to keep items off their Timeline, although those
photos or posts may appear elsewhere on the network. A user who doesn't like
her appearance in a friend's photo, for example, can keep it off her own
Timeline but can't remove it from the friend's page.
In a blog post, Facebook manager Samuel Lessin said few people use the
setting that hides their Timelines, and noted that "the setting didn't prevent
people from finding others in many other ways across the site."
Lessin told Reuters news service that the changes should make users more
comfortable as they interact on the social network. "When users don't
understand the concepts and controls and hit surprises, they don't build the
confidence they need," he told Reuters.
Watchdog groups and regulators are concerned about how Facebook and other
Internet companies handle their users' personal information. Last year,
Facebook settled a complaint by the Federal Trade Commission, without
admitting wrongdoing, by agreeing not to change users' privacy settings
without their consent.
Earlier this week, Facebook adopted some changes in its terms of service
that allow it to combine user data from the social network with information
from Instagram, the photo-sharing service that Facebook bought earlier this
year. The changes also loosened some restrictions on how users can contact
each other on the network.
Some privacy advocates have complained that those earlier changes may
violate Facebook's settlement with the FTC, although the commission has not
issued any finding on that question. Facebook allowed users to vote on those
changes, and more than 500,000 digital ballots were cast in opposition. But
that number fell short of the 300 million that Facebook's policy required to
make the election binding.
