Promises Simpler Process.
As expected, Facebook on Wednesday unveiled updates to its privacy settings that provide a one~stop shop for selecting privacy settings, makes less information publicly available, sets controls for Pages, and allows users to opt~out of third~party applications.
“The number one thing that we have heard is that just through all these changes and through building up more and more granular controls over time, the settings have gotten complex, and it has become hard for people to use them and to effectively control their information,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a press conference.
In an effort to simplify these settings, Facebook will roll out a new page that lets users select, with one click, if they want to share their information with everyone, friends of friends, or friends only. The option to drill down and select more granular privacy settings will also still be available.
“This controls, basically, all of the stuff that people want to do on a day~to~day basis ~ all of the status updates and the posts that they make, all of the photos that they are tagged in,” Zuckerberg said.
The option to select who you share your information with currently exists, but you have to choose an option for each setting (status updates, photos, personal information) rather than click one button.
Zuckerberg said changes to these settings will apply retroactively to existing content on your Facebook page, as well as to future products the company might roll out.
Facebook also pledged to make less information publicly available. Going forward, people with whom you are not friends on Facebook will only be able to see your name, profile picture, gender, and networks.
Facebook’s Pages ~ websites intended for celebrities, politicians, or businesses ~ will also get some privacy controls. Going forward, you can block people from seeing what Pages you have “liked” and also prevent yourself from showing up in the “People who like this” box on the actual Page. Third~party apps will also have to ask for permission to access any Pages that are not visible to everyone.
On the app front, Facebook will now allow you to turn off Platform apps and Websites, so information ~ even information that is shared with everyone ~ is not shared with apps. It will also be easier to opt~out of Instant Personalization, the program that ports your Facebook information to participating outside websites like Pandora and Yelp.
Finally, third~party apps must ask for permission before gaining access to any personal information a user has not set as open to “everyone.”
“This is a pretty big overhaul to the system that we have,” Zuckerberg said.
To inform users about the changes, Facebook will include a notice atop the home page that will link to a website with more detailed information.
“We have only ever done a few announcements on the top of the home page in the history of the company, so this is just something that we take seriously,” Zuckerberg said.
Privacy Backlash.
Issues with Facebook’s privacy settings date back to December, when it rolled out new settings intended to give users more control over their information. However, the move made some users’ information more open by default. At last month’s f8 developer conference Zuckerberg also discussed an “open graph”, which is supposed to connect people to Facebook on third-party websites.
Both efforts prompted inquiries from consumer groups, members of Congress, privacy watchdogs, and the Article 29 Working Party.
Zuckerberg said Wednesday that Facebook has been working with those who criticized the recent privacy changes, including Sen. Charles Schumer and groups like the Center for Technology and Democracy and Consumers Union. Ultimately, however, “the main thing we did was listen to user feedback,” he said.
“We have a strong opinion on the direction that we think things should go or the way that things will work best, but we always listen to what people say, [and] the feedback that they give,” he said.
Zuckerberg denied that Facebook’s goal with its December privacy overhaul was to have all members make their information publicly available.
“I think it is pretty clear that when you look and examine the stuff, that is not the case,” he said. “There is really big buckets of information that we think should be open to each field, each group of people. Of all the basic stuff that people share, status updates for example or information for people to find them, it seems like it does by default make sense for people to make open to everyone. But photos of you and videos of you? We think that makes a lot more sense to restrict to just the community around you, and really sensitive stuff like contact info, we think it makes sense to restrict just to your friends.”
When asked why Facebook did not just make all of a user’s information completely private and let them choose whether or not to share it with the Facebook community, Zuckerberg essentially said that defeats the purpose of the website.
“The website has actually never worked in a way that you sign up and the only people who can see you or your information were your friends,” he said. ‘The reason for that is … if only the people who were already your friends on the website could see your information then it would be really difficult to connect with your actual friends and actually be able to have meaningful interactions with them.”
The point of Facebook, he said, is “to help people share information and be able to find and connect with each other.” Users have told Facebook that they want an essentially open platform, he said. “People use the service because they love sharing information.”
That being said, “we really do believe in privacy,” he said, but “as long as [users] have good control over that, I really think [a more open model is] where the world is going.”
Zuckerberg also denied that making the website more open will result in more advertising dollars for Facebook. In fact, it is exactly the opposite, he said.
When businesses sign up to advertise on the website, Facebook targets the ads, not the companies. Ad companies are not privy to personal information (unless there is a bug, a situation that Zuckerberg said “sucks, and we have to make sure that does not happen”), and Facebook’s efforts to be more open via Platform and Connect can hurt its ad revenue chances. Once an ad is on an outside website, “that service can use it to compete with us and target ads,” he said.
The backlash over the privacy changes have prompted some to encourage others to ditch Facebook, but Zuckerberg said there have been no “statistically significant, meaningful changes” to Facebook membership numbers.
When asked how these controls might affect a rumored location~based service, Zuckerberg pointed to the new control that will apply current settings to future product roll~outs. But he said he was “not ready to talk about anything around location because, frankly, it is not done yet, and we do not know what we are doing [with it].”
by: Chloe Albanesius
