More Facebook privacy changes May 2010

 

In response to the recent backlash against Facebook’s latest privacy changes, Mark Zuckerberg announced yet more changes. Supposedly these changes make it simpler for users to set privacy controls.

A summary of the changes follows.

1. Simplified privacy controls.

Go to Account –> Privacy Settings and you’ll see a summary of how you’ve set the controls. With one click you can change it.

To see a screen shot, click on the image below.

I’ve customized my settings, so certain information is visible only to friends and other information is private, e.g. email address.

2. Visibility of information you set will be the default for everything going forward.

If you make your information visible to only your friends, then anything added later will also be visible to only your friends. No more default to visible to everyone.

3. You can now turn off all applications so none of your information is shared with applications or websites.

Account — > Privacy Settings — > Applications.

To see a screen shot, click on the image below.

Application platforms can be totally turned off.

4. You can choose to NOT share information with partner websites.

Previously, partner sites could access any information you’ve made available to everyone. Now, you have the ability to turn this feature off. You have do go in and manually uncheck the box, but this will insure (hopefully!) that no information is shared.

Account — > Privacy Settings — > Applications and Websites — > Instant personalization — > Edit settings.

Uncheck the box that says “enable instant personalization on partner websites.”

To see a screen shot, click on the image below.

For more detailed information about Facebook Privacy controls, check out Facebook’s privacy explanation. You can also read more about it on Mark Zuckerberg’s latest 5/26/10 blog post.

All this is well and good, but basic common sense still applies, be careful what you share online!