Facebook flags new privacy settings


KARL QUINN
May 27, 2010 - 3:06PM

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has issued a lengthy statement on the site announcing changes designed to respond to criticism over the company's privacy policy.

In it, he flagged a one-step mechanism for maximising a user's privacy settings.

However, the upgrade does not appear to be available yet. When this user visited his page this morning, the only way to maximise privacy settings was the old one-function-at-a-time approach that has so irritated users.
The "keep me logged in" box also defaults to a ticked setting at every log-in, despite being unticked whenever used.

To be fair, Zuckerberg did write that the company was "starting to roll out some changes", not that the changes were already in effect.

Cynics might read that as a stalling tactic. True believers might counter that software development takes time.

The key aim of the changes, Zuckerberg said in the post headlined "Making Control Simple", was to give users an easier way to set their privacy controls to a default setting, whether that be friends only, friends of friends, everyone or a customised combination.

Significantly, he promised those settings would be carried forward through subsequent Facebook product releases and application upgrades, so that users will not have to reset with each iteration of the site.

Since the revelation that recent changes to Facebook significantly extended the amount of users' information available to external third parties, the company had received "lots of feedback", Zuckerberg wrote.

"The number one thing we've heard is that there just needs to be a simpler way to control your information," he wrote.

"We've always offered a lot of controls, but if you find them too hard to use then you won't feel like you have control. Unless you feel in control, then you won't be comfortable sharing and our service will be less useful for you. We agree we need to improve this.

"Today we're starting to roll out some changes that will make all of these controls a lot simpler. We've focused on three things: a single control for your content, more powerful controls for your basic information and an easy control to turn off all applications."

Among the things that have infuriated users recently is that many of these functions, automatically introduced to every user's profile, are set to maximum access as the default.

Users need to manually reset the access level to their preference every time Facebook introduces a new feature or upgrade.

Facebook's new position does not change the default setting on new accounts, but it does mean that whatever privacy setting a user has nominated will apply to new applications as well, rather than immediately defaulting to maximum access (that is, "everyone", in Facebook-ese).

But users will still need to change their settings in the first place.

While the changes announced should go some way to allaying concerns over Facebook's cavalier attitude to privacy, time will tell whether the company fully delivers what it has promised and whether it maintains that pledge in the long term.

A close reading of the following paragraph from Zuckerberg's post would suggest that the latter, at least, is far from guaranteed.

"Finally and perhaps most importantly, I am pleased to say that with these changes the overhaul of Facebook's privacy model is complete. If you find these changes helpful, then we plan to keep this privacy framework for a long time*. That means you won't need to worry about changes."

Hmmm. We'll see about that.

* My italics