20 December 2012
UNTAG: Facebook edits its privacy settings to secure users’ safety.
By Hannah Lerstad, Staff Writer
Facebook will institute a new security system to simplify the navigation of privacy settings and grant more control over photos, tagged photos and posts. Also included in the new system are restrictions on what information apps can access and a dropdown menu for quick and easy privacy changes.
The features include a “Request and Removal” tool for tags and photos. Users can request the removal of a tag or an entire photo from another user’s page. The tool also provides users with pre-made reasons for why they would want the photo or tag taken down, so as to avoid awkward questions and conversations.
However, the features are not completely foolproof. CBS News reported that “when a user hides a post from a Timeline, a message will pop up that explains that while the post is hidden on the Timeline, it will still show in other places, like your friends’ news feeds and in searches. Similarly, if you untag yourself from a photo […] your photo will still be in the album you were tagged in and the only way to remove the photo completely is ask your friend to take it down.”
“Your timeline is different than other places on Facebook. We really want users to know that,” Nicky Jackson Colaco, Facebook Manager of Privacy and Safety, said.
In addition, a new privacy settings dropdown menu will be installed in the right-hand corner of the page. The menu will have three simple questions to help users control their safety settings: Who can see my stuff? Who can contact me? How do I stop someone from bothering me?
This menu replaces one key measure of security that will be repealed by the new system; users will no longer be able to block specific people from finding them by typing their name in the search bar. The “Who can look up my Timeline by name?” tool will be eliminated since Facebook executives believe it makes users “think it provides a level of security, but it actually doesn’t.”
Under the new privacy settings users will be able to control what personal information is made available to apps. Instead of supplying all information, users now get to choose whether the app can access any non-essential information. They also have the option to confirm or deny app requests for access to information.
While the changes will not go into effect immediately, the new privacy settings should be online by the end of the year.