Facebook is currently rolling out a number of new and improved privacy settings that make it easier for users to share what they want with who they want.
In the past, Facebook has taken a lot of criticism for burying it’s privacy settings deep within menus, making them hard to find and a hassle to change. But finally, after many failed attempts to appease it’s audience the social network may finally be on the right track.
The main change is that privacy settings come in the form of inline controls located right next to the posts, photos or information that they affect, meaning it’s easy to fully customise who sees what without having to navigate away from the page you’re on.
Another new and much needed privacy feature is you can now approve or reject tagged photos of you prior to them going live on your profile – we’ve all been caught out with unfortunate ‘taggings’ before.
As a way of allowing you to check your privacy settings are all in order, Facebook has moved the ‘view profile as’ tab to the top of your profile. Previously this feature was hidden away deep in the account settings.
There are also some other key changes worth noting:
- Remove tags or content – gives the user more power to remove tags and message or block the image owner or tagger
image via Facebook
- Change your mind after posting – you can now change who can see your post after you’ve posted it. Previously, if you posted to the wrong group or friend-set you had to delete the post and re-submit it
- Change in terminology – when selecting who you share posts with, the ‘Everyone’ option has been renamed ‘Public’. Facebook say, “the control is more descriptive of the behaviour: anyone may see it, but not everyone will see it”
- Location tagging – geographical locations have been added to the desktop version of Facebook meaning you can add a location to anything (including photos) regardless of the device you’re using or where you’re using it
- Tag anything or anyone – historically you could only tag your friends or pages that you ‘liked’. You can now tag anyone or any page on Facebook. Of course, nothing will be shown until it’s approved by the user so no risk tags from strangers popping up on your wall
All of the changes will be rolled out over the coming days and Facebook says you’ll be prompted for a tour of the settings when they do arrive. Existing users will retain their current privacy settings and Facebook has assured there would be no unexpected blips during the changeover process. That’s yet to be seen.
Chris Cox, product vice-president at Facebook commented, “I don’t think the old controls were bad. I just think the new ones are much better,”.
Many would disagree, but for all it’s past sins Facebook has pulled it out the bag with these updates. We ‘like’ it a lot.
