Facebook users who don't adjust their privacy settings will begin publishing their status updates and photos to the entire internet Wednesday, a change made by Facebook in its simplification of its privacy tools in order to keep up with the popularity of micro-publishing sites like Twitter.
Facebook users logging in Wednesday will see a 'transition tool' that will show them how their old privacy settings map onto the new ones, and show them 'suggested' new settings in a less complicated interface. For example, Facebook suggests that e-mail addresses are only shown to friends, while status updates are recommended to be made entirely public. Under the new settings, a user's name, profile photo, gender and friend list are publicly available, as well.
With the new settings, Facebook now lets users choose — for each individual update or photo shared on their page — who can see them. Options range from friends, friends of friends, a college network, a customized list of friends, or everyone on the internet. Geographic networks, such as London, New York and Australia, which have grown to encompass millions of users are being removed as superfluous.
But the new suggested default for those postings is everyone, a powerful change that will bring much of what's been hidden behind Facebook's privacy firewalls to become visible to the entire net, the way that written posts are on Twitter or photos are via DailyBooth or TwitPic.
Facebook estimates that 80 to 85 percent of its users have stuck with the default privacy settings, which means hundreds of millions of users will soon be publishing to the entire net, by default when they type into their status box. The previous defaults for status updates were "Friends of Friends" and networks, including geographic ones with millions of users, while photos defaulted to everyone.
That status update box now has a lock icon underneath it, letting a user choose from a drop-down box who will see a specific update.
Chris Cox, Facebook's vice president for product development, admitted in a call with reporters that Facebook has learned from sites like Twitter where the default and usual behavior is publishing to the entire world.
But he emphasized that Facebook isn't giving up on its information controls, which the company uses to attempt to mimic how people share information in their real-life social circles — for instance, dividing vacation photos into ones suitable for family, some for friends and some for co-workers.
"There is a lot of value when the default is that everyone can see what they are posting," Cox said. "And there is a lot of value in a service in letting people choose the granularity of how they share. That's the service we are trying to build."
Facebook's VP of Communicaton Elliot Schrage added that Facebook has learned that users want the ability to share more with more people, something it found during the Obama inauguration and Michael Jackson's memorial service.
Schrage also says the new controls will make users share more widely, but voluntarily.
"As a result of offering greater control, people will be more comfortable sharing more," Schrage said.
The changes do not affect how third-party Facebook applications access users' data, something the company has promised to change in an agreement reached with Canadian privacy authorities.
See Also:
- Facebook Privacy Changes Hint at a Brave New, Twitter-Like, World
- Lawsuit Accuses Facebook of Conspiring to Break Video-Privacy Law
- How to Handle Facebook Privacy Settings for Your Kids
- Canadian Law Clinic: Facebook Violates Canadian Privacy Law
- Facebook Beacon Tracking Program Draws Privacy Lawsuit
- Privacy Fears Shock Facebook
