New Facebook Privacy Controls Inline

Just a few moments ago while complaining about something utterly unimportant on Facebook. I noticed this little guy pop-up telling me about some new privacy controls on status updates. It seems now that you have the option of tagging who you are with as well as your current location and finally with the option of making your update public or whatever. I know they say that these are privacy controls but if anything it seems like they are more ways to lose your privacy. You decide.

As it says “to make privacy simpler we made some changes including creating this new tool, removing and updating some settings, and giving you a clear, inline control for who sees your posts.” Very straight forward.

The first step is to tell everyone who you are with. “Use this button to tag people and say who you’re with. You can tag anyone. When you (or others) add tags, the people tagged and their friends may see the post too. You can choose to review tags other add to your stuff.” So now I have to tell everyone who I am with? I suppose I don’t have to. I can just picture it now — Katie is with Sammy and we’re hanging out at the mall — Eugh!

Now you add a location. “To easily say where you are, you can add your current city or neighborhood to your posts, or add a specific place. You can turn this on or off at any time.”

Its true you can “turn it on or off at any time.” In this example my location is Hachioji, Tokyo but by clicking on the little “x” next to the city’s name I can remove it. This may be interesting and will enable me to post from different locations around the world just for kicks.

We’ve been acquainted with this feature for a while now. This privacy control allows us to select who can see our posts(s). The only change that has been done is with the “Everyone” label to “Public.”

I suppose its good that we have all these controls but in my estimate over 90% of users are lazy — heck probably even more than that– who due to ignorance, apathy or both are just not going to take the time to change their settings. No faith in you morons. The best method of keeping one’s privacy would have been not to have the “features” in the first place.

You can find out more info and a pretty video here: http://www.facebook.com/about/sharing

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