Facebook unveils new privacy controls

Tuesday 23 February 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

Tags: Application, Facebook, Google, Privacy, Security

Facebook, the world's largest social networking group, announced new privacy controls this week for content posted using third-party applications, external websites linked to Facebook via the Connect system and Facebook's mobile version. Some client software that performs Facebook activity, such as Seesmic, is also incorporating the new settings.

The move comes after the launch in December of a control feature that many users had called for - the ability to customise privacy for each piece of content shared on Facebook.com through the Publisher. Now Facebook has extended the same level of control to content shared through applications.

The "granular" privacy options enable users to personalise the audience for each piece of content - status updates, links, photos and videos - shared through applications. Users simply need to select the group of people they want to share with from the drop-down menu near the lock icon on the Publisher of their home page or profile - or follow the prompts when sharing from applications or Facebook Connect websites.

On the Facebook blog, Ray He, an engineer on the Facebook Platform team, explained:

"Applications on Facebook.com and external websites and services using Facebook Connect implementations have always respected your privacy based on what you've set in the 'Posts by Me' setting on your Privacy Settings page. This setting will continue to be your default setting for all posts, and you can change it at any time. You may also start to see additional prompts in applications asking if you'd like to set privacy for certain pieces of content that differ from your default setting. Whether you choose to keep your default setting on everything you share or change the audience for different pieces of content, the choice is yours."

Privacy in social networking has already been in the spotlight this week due to the public outcry over Google Buzz, which made lists of friends - based on the frequency of Gmail and Google Talk communication - public by default on the user's profile. Google had to act quickly to apologise and modify its new product.

Facebook has had its fair share of criticism too. The company recently faced the blow of a lawsuit over modifications it made last year to its privacy settings, which included making public some profile information that previously been hidden.

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