Facebook rolls out new privacy settings

Facebook has begun rolling our new privacy settings to its 350 million users, giving users a much tighter control over who sees what.

As part of the changes, Facebook users will be able to select a privacy setting for each piece of content, such as photos or updates, that they share on the site. The choices are “friends only”, “friends of friends” or “everyone.” Users will have to be wary of selecting the “everyone” setting, as it will mean their content could appear in Google search results.

The new controls are designed to simplify the complicated privacy controls that have confused many users for some time.

Commenting on the changes, Facebook’s vice president of communications, public policy and marketing, Elliot Schrage, said in a press conference: “People should have the ability to share information with only the people they want…we want to make privacy something that is considered in context of what’s being shared, so that users have more control every step of the way.”