Facebook's latest privacy changes: What you need to know
Some of Facebook's new privacy changes are actually pretty good. Others, not so much.
Facebook is yet again making changes to its privacy settings. Many of the new features will make understanding and controlling your privacy on the social network easier. But there's one that may not be to everyone's liking.
First, the good news:
- We'll have better app permission controls. Previously, when you authorized an app on Facebook you had to allow it to post on your timeline as well as access your data (if the app developers wanted to post on your behalf). With the changes that are rolling out, you can now connect Facebook with an app and decide in separate requests whether it can post for you. Also, Facebook is cleaning up the privacy language so it's clearer what permissions apps have. Instead of saying an app will access your "basic info," for example, it will say "public profile and friend list."
- New shortcut to privacy controls. The new shortcut will let you manage who can contact you, who can see your stuff on Facebook, and also block people.
- Better control over your Activity Log: It'll be easier and quicker to control the comments and posts others have tagged and that appear on your Facebook timeline.
Now for the not-so good news: Facebook is getting rid of the ability for you to hide yourself on Facebook's search. Although the company says this isn't a feature used by many (less than 10%), considering the billions of people using Facebook, that "single-digit percent of users" is a lot of people. Some might argue that there's no reason to be on the social network if you don't want to be found, but on the other hand, I see no reason for Facebook to remove this feature.
Anyway, that's the crux of the changes. Your thoughts?
[via NY Times and The Next Web]
