Facebook Makes Privacy Settings More Obvious

CWmike writes "Facebook is making a series of design changes to the site to make it clearer to users who can see the content that they post, an issue Google has been criticizing Facebook about since it launched its own social network, Google+, in June. 'You have told us that "who can see this?" could be clearer across Facebook, so we have made changes to make this more visual and straightforward,' Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday. The main change is that Facebook will now display the intended audience for a photo, a text post, a tag or any other piece of content right next to it. Until now, those controls have been on a separate Settings section of the profile. 'Your profile should feel like your home on the web — you should never feel like stuff appears there that you don't want, and you should never wonder who sees what's there.' Another change Facebook is introducing is allowing users to modify the audience of a post after it's published, which they couldn't do before."

Home on the Web?

[ksd1337]

Your profile should feel like your home on the web

Um, no. A Facebook profile feels like a cheap apartment. They all look the same, feel the same, and even smell the same (okay, that last one, I don't know what I'm talking about.)

A personal website, on the other hand, now THAT feels like my home on the Web.

Competition is good!

[guspasho]

It's amazing what a little competition will do for your motivation.

Who are they kidding?

[Rumagent]

Too little, too late.

And it only took them 7 years!

[Geurilla]

It only took them seven years to make these changes, too. And what a coincidence that they roll these out right after G+ launches with these features out of the gate.

In terms of privacy, their problem is not a lack of features. Their problem is trust. And after years and years of hard work to make me never trust them they have succeeded. New privacy features just can't fix that. Too little, too late

Re:Photocopiers to the ready.

[Asic Eng]

It seems Facebook has realized that Google has dropped the ball on privacy with that real name fiasco. Which seems to be getting even worse. Today when logging into Google+ I got this:

Hey, this is important: Add a phone to your account Without a
phone number, you could lose all access to your account if you
forget your password or if your account is hijacked. Learn more
[Phone number (mobile or landline)]

Google will only use your number for account security. We'll
never share it with other companies or send you unwanted
messages--ever. Adding a phone number helps make your
account much more secure.

In very small font below: "Click _here_ to skip this step anyway."

So now they are even trying to extract my phone number from me. Geez.

Initially the attraction was: well it's like Facebook, but not run by hated corporation Facebook. By now Facebook can say: "Well, we may have our flaws, but at least we are not Google".

Re:Completely bogus.

[PickyH3D]

The only difference with Google+ is that Google is the ad agency. And if they kick you off, then you lose access to everything related to your account.

Google is demanding your full, legal name. They want you to join Gmail so that they can sell you ads by scanning your email. All of that goes along with the pretty picture that is painted by your Google searches.

I hate Facebook, but at least I do not have Facebook email or Facebook search, ignoring the Like buttons all over the place analogous to Google Analytics. I draw the line with Google at Gmail. I cannot keep getting deeper and deeper entrenched with any single company, especially when the potential of being banned, for any reason, has a lot of other potential side effects.

As long as Facebook keeps its borders intact, and no other independent player pops up, then I will likely be stuck on Facebook and not on Google+.