by Christina DesMarais for Techlicious
Facebook Overhauls Privacy Features
Facebook will be rolling out new privacy features later this month that aim to make it easier for you to understand and control how your information is used on Facebook. According to Facebook product Manager, Samuel Lessin, the impetus for the new features is, “…bringing controls in context where you share, helping you understand what appears where as you use Facebook, and providing tools to help you act on content you don’t like.”
Unfortunately, while the new features do make it somewhat easier for you to manage your privacy, they don’t actually change any of the rules for what data remains private or what Facebook or can do with your information (either public or private)—an issue that we’ve expressed serious concerns about in the past.
The notable updates are:
Privacy Shortcuts
Facebook privacy controls have never been easy to manage; most are hidden in various levels of menus under your user settings. The new Privacy Shortcuts will let you manage key settings through its own dropdown menu on the Facebook toolbar. Choices will include “Who can see my stuff?”, “Who can contact me?” and “How do I stop someone from bothering me?”. We don’t have details yet on exactly which settings will be available through each.
This excerpt appears with the permission of Techlicious.
