Facebook Unleashes New Privacy Controls
Thursday, May 27, 2010 by Shep McAllister 
What the new privacy page will look like. Click here for more info straight from ZuckerbergWe've been talking a lot about Facebook lately because, frankly, about 99% of college students use it. When Zuckerberg and co. came out with their incredibly fine-grained confusing new settings that defaulted to making tons of information public a few months ago, it gave rise to the usual crop of "1,000,000 Strong Against the New Facebook" groups. But something was different this time. People started talking seriously about abandoning ship and actually deleting their accounts. A few enterprising college students even started making their own social network in response to the changes.
It doesn't happen often, but this time the outcry was loud enough to actually make Facebook backtrack and respond to the criticism. Over the next two weeks, Facebook will be rolling out a streamlined and simplified privacy page to help you lock down your information to your heart's content. They will even prompt you upon signing in to check out the changes and update your settings. Nice of them, right?
Overall the response from the blogosphere has been positive, but bear in mind that simplified settings mean fewer options. For example, you won't be able to choose what non-friends will see if they search for you (your name, gender, profile picture, and networks are all fair game), and you can't choose different options for your posts, photos, and status updates anymore. It will be interesting to see how college students, still Facebook's bread-and-butter audience, will react to the new changes.
Has Facebook graced you with the new options yet? What do you think of the policy? Let us know in the comments.
Reader Comments (6)
Honestly I never had an issue with Facebook privacy. I have always been an online student (shot out to OnlineEducation.com so I am used to personal information (and educational information) being on the internet and how to protect myself. Our generation is supposed to have grown up with this technology, so it makes sense that we know how to use it. If people are too lazy to change their settings (or too lazy to figure out how) then that's their own problem. For once I am siding with money-hungry Facebook on this one.
It's about time these were put in place :)
I Love You Facebook. Like this Keep Spirit and Smile
I used facebook every now and then and am able to get alot of information about others. The only real problem I have with them is they freely give emails to anyone. I wouldn't want anyone to know my email because some people who know me could guess my password.
Our generation is supposed to have grown up with this technology, so it makes sense that we know how to use it. If people are too lazy to change their settings
chill cup
i love facebook..connecting with friends + business its fun overall