Facebook Caves In, Meets Members’ Demands for Greater Privacy
- Posted on August 25, 2011 at 12:30am by
Liz Klimas
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For the last few months — or longer — the words Facebook, transparency and privacy were never positively associated. On Tuesday, however, two potentially monumental things happened: 1) Facebook has announced changes to its site. 2) The changes are intended to improve user privacy.
In an official Facebook blog post called “Making It Easier to Share With Who You Want”, the company announced improved privacy measures after months of heat from users on everything from phone numbers to facial recognition technology:
Today we’re announcing a bunch of improvements that make it easier to share posts, photos, tags and other content with exactly the people you want. You have told us that “who can see this?” could be clearer across Facebook, so we have made changes to make this more visual and straightforward.
. . .
Plus there are several other updates here that will make it easier to understand who can see your stuff (or your friends’) in any context.
Facebook puts the updates in two categories: what shows up on your profile and what happens when you share something new.
Watch the report by Slate below or read about more specifics further down:
Your Profile
According to the blog post, “Your profile should feel like your home on the web — you should never feel like stuff appears there that you don’t want, and you should never wonder who sees what’s there.”
So here’s what Facebook has changed:
Like a shorter and simpler settings page, a new inline menu shows who can see certain parts of your profile; it can be changed with a click. See below.
You can now can confirm or reject photos or posts that you were tagged in by other people. You can also confirm or reject people who are trying to tag your photos or posts.
There is also now a “View Profile As” button that allows the user to view their profile as others see it. Now they know exactly what is visible to other people.
Sharing
On the sharing of photos, posts, etc., Facebook also has installed inline controls that let’s the user specify who can see each post, picture, etc. It’s called the “Public” button. What about when someone posts an unattractive photo — and tags you? Now, you’re given the option to untag, send the tagger a message to take the photo down completely or block the tagger completely.
Users commenting on the blog post were especially thankful for the fact that there is now a better photo removal system. But even though user complaints about privacy are being remedied, one of the popular comments under the blog post was that there is still no “dislike” button.
[H/T PC World]
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Grace1798
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 12:59pmDo not trust them, they LIE! I was in FB for 1 year and saw FACEBOOK TOTALLY SUPPORT and BACK every Liberal. You will also find Al Queda sites and Anti-American sites. You should see these sites threatening to cut heads off and/or kill whites or Conservatives and FACEBOOK does nothing!!!! Yet, I was blocked daily for posting anything Conservative and/or Christian posts. Don’t let them fool you……they are liars and anyone who is part of this is helping them help the enemies of our country. Do not believe me, check out those sites and you‘ll find out it’s all true. They won’t keep your personal identity private…DO NOT BELIEVE THEM. I am so glad I got out and I will stay out…best thing I ever did!
Report Post »junkmaninohio
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 10:59amIf you’re dumb enough to trust Facebook with protecting your privacy you are a fool. All those desperate social networking types addicted to telling the world when they use the bathroom or go to the store are idiots. Post pictures of their children on the web for every crackpot criminal and sex addict to see is beyond stupid. Like they say, life is tough, but it‘s tougher when you’re stupid.
Report Post »WarriorPitbull
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 9:55amGo away, you are not welcome here.
BLAZERS: Notice this red commie idiot spammer is linking to a site whose goods are SHIPPED DIRECTLY FROM CHINA. Read their ‘About Us’ page: http://www.clothes6.us/about.html
Report Post »UlyssesP
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 9:31pmFARCEbook is pointless and a waste of time. I use it to promote my product and actually generate $$ and I STILL THINK IT SUCKS.
Report Post »M 4 Colt
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 3:25amWise up people if you don’t want YOUR information and photos on the web then STOP USING web pages like facebook. I am in my mid 50;s and don;t have any online facebook of friends web pages i am so old school i don’t even own a cell phone and like it that way.
The government now has cameras set up all over down town in big city’s and have full surveillance systems with a ton of cameras in all government buildings to track your movements with, so why make it easy by letting them track you through the use of your cell phone too.
As if this is not bad enough when was the last time you went to your doctors office, just as an FYI your doctor is now required by the government to put all of YOUR MEDICAL records on computer and to send ALL OF YOUR medical information to the government, for as they put it “safe keeping” i don‘t know about you but i don’t see any reason for the government to have my medical records, this is not good news people.
Report Post »DisillusionedDaily
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 6:13pmI am now retired but people I used to know professionally got me to sign up on Linked In, sorta like a face book for professionals. I kept up with it for a year but the only interaction I ever had with anyone was a lot of people wanting to be added to my contacts list. I closed my account because I didn’t see any value to continuing it. Facebook appears to have a lot of appeal to impressionable youths, but they do not understand how the information they post on-line can be used against them by malicious individuals. I learned my lesson about on-line “friends” when I had a Yahoo 360 page. Never again!
Report Post »junkmaninohio
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 11:04amI agree with you 100%. People are idiots for using this social network site. I convinced my children to abandon their Facebook addiciton and they are happier for it. They actually received death threats and other nasty comments associated with this site. Face book should be shut down. It’s harmful.
Report Post »JediKnight
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 2:27pmLinkedIn is extremely useful for professionals. With the ability to have someone “recommend” you, it can give a potential employer a quick way to see if you’re really good at what you do or just blowing smoke. It’s the next best thing to references on a resume.
Report Post »santramir
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 5:12pmno more cheap distractions. STOP the FED, get your money power back, !! don’t let them fool you any more!!
Report Post »Brontefan
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 2:38pmI’m not sure there is anyone at F/B that you can really trust.
Report Post »308Hammer
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 2:24pmWhat people don’t understand is FB has your content and will do with it as they please…this is just lip service.
They are doing this because they lost hundreds of thousands of members…do not sign up for FB and if you have an account do upload any more data. You can never delete said data – ever.
Report Post »kalli
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 1:50pmFacebook is in the pocket of the WH. This was proven when they deleted Gov. Brewer’s post that was anti-obama the other day. I wouldn’t trust anything fb says or does. You can bet the gov’t is watching you.
Report Post »louise
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 1:47pmthere is no privacy online period. I had a facebook account a couple of years ago for a few months.
Report Post »a couple of things that drove me absolutely bonkers about FB was lack of privacy, and all those stupid updates about what friends were doing on their“farms” ect ect.
Every time I got an update about who was picking their beets or gathering their eggs, I wanted to bang my head on my computer desk!! I thought geeze, can’t anyone have a mature conversation about something really important?
junkmaninohio
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 11:07amThat’s because these Facebook addicts have no life and are afraid to interact in the real world. Stupid is as stupid does.
Report Post »JediKnight
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 2:29pmYou do realize that it’s very easy to turn off all those updates, right? I turned them off for everyone except a select few people and now I rarely see them.
Report Post »simply one voice
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 1:15pmP. T. Barnum said it truthfully. A sucker is born every minute. I would trust Facebook or Google about as far as I could throw the cracking Washington monument.
If you want to believe lies in life, believe in lies.
Report Post »caseydog27
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 12:28pmI am hearing more and more people are deleting their accounts, myself and one of my kids just deleted ours recently because of all the concerns with FB. I don’t trust them at all nor do I believe what i did have out there will actually be “deleted”. Never should have started in the first place.
Report Post »kalli
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 1:57pm@CASEYDOG27 – I believe this is why facebook is now scrambling to contain the number of accounts deactivating. A girlfriend and a sister talked me into signing up a few weeks before the townhall held by the WH. It was too public for me, and as soon as I saw that fb was in the pocket of the WH, I deleted everything and closed it. WHen AZ’s Gov. Brewer’s post was deleted recently by fb, many people deactivated their accounts.
Report Post »Candice Lynn
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 12:17pmIf you want to see the hate on FACEBOOK, go to the White House page.
We need controls and FACEBOOK is being irresponsible in giving us the ability to block pages.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.210611718994136.69404.100001359291951&type=1
For far to long individuals have created pages to attack and malign others. Facebook has failed with their responsibility in giving us the ability to BLOCK, the pages that are attacking and harassing others.
There is no designated way to report these pages and even though they are in “violation” of the terms they signed, those of us that have regular profiles cannot block the HATE and BULLYING.
It’s time it stops!
Report Post »jkendal
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 11:33amAnyone stupid enough to think they have any privacy whatsoever on a public forum deserves to have their so-called ‘private’ life exposed for all to see. And then there are those who actually desire to put
Report Post »their entire lives on the internet for all to see because of their wanton need for attention but they’re in a different category altogether…..
konakoka
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 12:04amNobody deserves to be hated on by anyone because you say so. Words are very powerful. You may want to consider how you use them in the future. Do you believe that you have deserved all the bad things that have happened to you in your life? I don’t wish anything bad upon you and it is not up to me to decide what you deserve. Your words carry more weight than you think they do. Love each other. ALOHA
Report Post »junkmaninohio
Posted on August 26, 2011 at 11:09amThe really sad thing is these Facebook morons actually post pictures and locations of their children on this site for every criminal and sex addict to see. Talk about stupid!
Report Post »nptden
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 10:39amThe govt already has all the info they need. Obviously Facebook lies in bed with Obama. Look at the record.
Report Post »ARSILHOUETTE
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 9:19amWhat FB needs to do is get rid of all those damn independent apps that require you to allow them to access all your information before you can accept them.
Report Post »Candice Lynn
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 12:19pmYou can block them.
Report Post »jacobstroubles
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 9:01amWhat a total lie/joke… there is no privacy with FACEBOOK… they’ll hand over your personal info when the gov comes a calling, in a heartbeat.
Your best bet is to delete your account NOW.
Report Post »one years food ration like glenn says
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 9:10amStill wont reactivate my account.. F- facebook..
Report Post »Theswerd
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 8:13amThere are at least two typos in this article. “what *shoes* up on your profile” … Hrm…
And “to take the photo down *complete* or block the tagger completely.”
Just thought I would offer some quality control. :D
Report Post »mr anarchy
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 3:18amthere is dataphiles out-there data miners… every thing is catched… its all sold….
anything put on the net— is public infomation…sorry pplz…
nothing is private…
Report Post »Julie2010
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 4:10am“there is dataphiles out-there data miners… every thing is catched… its all sold….
anything put on the net— is public infomation…sorry pplz…
nothing is private…”
You are correct.
Report Post »Applehead
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 6:09amI don’t understand what is accomplished when you send a message to a friend and your entire history of messages with that friend is visible!!! Who wants that? If you had unkind words with a friend or girlfriend they are reminded of it every time you message that person!!! I can’t help but believe that it makes it easier for someone with evil intentions to have a nice neat history that can be used against you without having to look through years of messages!!! That stuck up a major red flag!!!!!
Report Post »Bluefish49
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 7:43amI cancelled my FB account a year ago and haven’t missed it yet. Tired of seeing my idiot freinds play Farmville.
Report Post »foobear
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 2:37amThis story is absolutely not true. Facebook does NOT make it easy to control your privacy settings. Case in point, they just introduced an “app sidebar” that reports everything you do within apps to all of your friends on Facebook. Should be working, but playing Civ World? Guess what, everyone knows about it now.
In order to change it, you have to go into application settings, and click through a couple things and dropdown menus for EVERY app you have on Facebook. While they could have put a “don’t share this with anyone” option on the app settings page, instead they made it a total PITA.
Facebook is worse for privacy than every before.
Report Post »one years food ration like glenn says
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 9:33am@DARKFIRE.. Yes you can, go there and look around… You find how to delete your account totally you have to send facebook the request and they will do it for you. for some unknown reason this request takes 14 days and you have that 14 days to change your mind but if you choose to still delete your account, after 14 days it’s gone, trust me I’ve done it.. Now I don‘t know if the account is held somewhere else for facebook to use but after the 14 days I tried to go into my account and it wasn’t there.. they didn’t know who I was and I would have to make a new account.. Anyway, I deleted all my pics ,all my friend, all my phone numbers ect. ect, FIRST and then deleted for further security..
Report Post »Buster-Siren
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 1:25amConservatives should forget facebook and stop supporting the liberal progressives who own it and run it. And by the way, the people who are helping Barack Obama get re-elected. Support conservative sites like http://www.FreedomTorch.com. I do all my political talk there.
Report Post »joan k
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 1:03amYou don’t necessarily have to post your phone numbers to have them come up. IF you happen to have a phone with internet service and you link it to your Facebook page it will download all your friends, family and buisness people’s numbers on your facebook page. So you may not even KNOW that you have phone numbers turning up on your FB page.
Report Post »Midwest Blonde
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 12:52amI use facebook because my [older] grandchildren are on facebook and I don’t get to see them in real time very often.
What people don’t seem to realize is that you DO NOT have to list your phone number, your address, you don‘t even have to list your home town or state if you don’t want to. I listed NOTHING except my name then set my [old] preferences so that only “friends” that I had tagged as family could see stuff. Worked out well for me – those people already know my phone number and address etc.
Too many people are STUPID when it comes to what they put online – If you don’t want it made public, then do not put it anywhere on the web. Use your brain(s). If it’s not there, NO ONE CAN FIND IT! No need for privacy controls. :)
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 6:35amExactly. I am on Facebook mostly because I have friends that are a 12 hour drive away from me. I don’t allow anyone to be a “friend” unless I know them personally (in the real world). I have one friend of a friend who I clicked to find out who we had in common, and accidentaly friended her. I‘ve been lucky and it hasn’t hurt me. I have everything set to only my friends can see comments (not even friends of friends because you don’t know who would let just anyone be their friend). I think it’s a hobby for some people to collect as many friends as possible. It must make them feel popular. My MIL friended everyone she could just so she could have them be friends on Farmville.
Report Post »gdbhusker
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 12:41amfacebook is setting up a system for the US government…. and it is so open it isn’t even funny!!! call me a conspiro nut if you want…but the CIA financed Mark Z’s initial launch… go figure…people actually volunteering information that 30 years a go our parents would have died to keep private….
Report Post »vennoye
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 12:48amYes, it’s sad what people will put on facebook with no thought!!
Report Post »Applehead
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 5:57amIt could easily be used by evil people for ethnic, religious and non communist cleansing! Sounds insane, but we all have woken up to things that were unfathomable in the US several years ago! I could remember O‘Reilly several years ago laughing at Beck about communists in the US Gov’t!!!
Report Post »Brizz
Posted on August 25, 2011 at 12:59pmExcellent points. True or not, Facebook is degrading social interaction as well. It is dehumanizing and thus interrupting personal relationships.
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