Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is known for its confusing privacy settings, and it surely needs to be simpler and easier to understand. In an attempt to do this, the social network has made some changes to its privacy settings and will also be introducing a brand new Privacy Checkup tool.
Up until now, when new users joined Facebook, their posts were automatically set to public. This means that all status updates, photos and videos can be seen by anyone on the Internet. That’s certainly not good in terms of privacy. Thankfully Facebook has realized this and from now on will automatically set the audience of new users as “Friends” instead of “Public.” Facebook announced these details in its Newsroom.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will show a reminder to new users, asking them to choose an audience for their first post. If they don’t make a choice, then it will be set at “Friends.” This change is specifically related to new users, but what about existing users on Facebook?
For existing users, over the next few weeks, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) will be rolling out a new and expanded privacy checkup tool, which “will take people through a few steps to review things like who they’re posting to, which apps they use, and the privacy of key pieces of information on their profile.” If needed, then they can also change their privacy settings using this tool.
As per Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), this new tool is designed to help people ensure that they’re sharing stuff with the right audience. This is something of utmost importance, as many times people don’t know with whom they’re sharing, which can put them in an uncomfortable situation. Apart from this new tool, the privacy settings will still work the same without any changes.
On Facebook for iPhone, the audience selector is now at the top left of the screen, and on the web, there’s a simplified audience selector.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has always been criticized on how it handles users’ privacy. Hopefully this new tool will somehow help users to better understand their privacy settings on Facebook.
