Facebook simplifies privacy settings

Saturday 05 June 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

Facebook - the world's leading social networking site, with over 400 million users - has unveiled simplified privacy controls. The move comes in the wake of continued criticism of its privacy policy, especially following several recent blunders. One allowed users to view their friends' private chats and pending friend requests, while another made it possible for spammers to target Facebook users with harmful malware disguised as an application sent by friends.

At a press conference at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, California, on 26 May, the firm's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, unveiled the new privacy controls, while admitting that the existing privacy settings had been too complicated. He insisted, however, that Facebook was not trying to force people to share their information and that the company does not sell personal data to advertisers.

Using the new controls, a variety of different privacy levels can be applied with a single click, with the ability then to customise any of these settings further. There are four basic settings, allowing users to share data with 'everyone', 'friends of friends', 'friends only' or 'recommended' - the latter setting sharing certain data, such as family information, with everyone but photos and videos only with friends of friends.

There will also be retroactive control, so that users who choose 'friends only' or 'friends of friends' with the simple control will have the corresponding setting for all the content they previously shared. There will also be less publicly available information, with this data now limited to name, profile picture (should a user have one), gender (although even this can be hidden) and networks (if the user has joined any). In addition, new settings will make it easier to turn off third-party applications or websites. The new-style controls are being rolled out worldwide over the next few weeks. Facebook is also holding briefings with Congress in the US to respond to recent criticisms of its privacy policy.

Defending Facebook's privacy record, Zuckerberg said:

"People think that we don't care about privacy, but that's not true. There's a balance. More and more people want to share information, and as long as they have good controls over that, I think that's where the world is going."

In response to being quizzed about the company's handling of personal data, Zuckerberg added:

"The principle is that we don't give any information to advertisers. We target the ads to people ourselves. Advertisers come to us with adverts that they want shown to particular [demographic groups of] people, and we take the ad and show it to the person that we think will be interested in that information. So it doesn't matter who you're showing your data to. It doesn't matter whether you share it at all."

Zuckerberg was reiterating points he'd made in an article in the Washington Post a couple of days previously, where he wrote:

"Here are the principles under which Facebook operates:
-- You have control over how your information is shared.
-- We do not share your personal information with people or services you don't want.
-- We do not give advertisers access to your personal information.
-- We do not and never will sell any of your infomation to anyone.
-- We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyoner."

One thing is for sure - the popularity of the global Facebook phenomenon will ensure that the company behind it remains firmly in the spotlight. Zuckerberg may yet have to tweak the privacy settings further. Even before the recent changes, the New York Times pointed out that - at 5,830 words - Facebook's privacy policy was longer than the US Constitution!

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