Facebook privacy changes imminent

Facebook is getting ready to go through another makeover, and this time the main issue of contention will be privacy. The world’s largest social networking site—counting a staggering 350 million users—has decided that it would make information posted on profiles more secure and also give each user more control over privacy settings. The issue of privacy has been front and centre in recent days, with reports—including on this site—of a Canadian woman who had her sick benefits cancelled based on the photos she posted to her Facebook profile. As part of these changes, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social networking site will be eliminating all privacy networks, including those based on schools, regions or cities and companies.

Previously, members of any given city’s network, or fellow students at a university could by default view the profiles of all other network members, unless the individual user decided to strengthen his/her privacy settings. The change will come into effect in a matter of weeks and all account holders will receive a message asking them to verify their profile’s privacy settings.

But Facebook is planning other changes as well in the next few weeks. For example, users will soon be able to place more stringent limitations on what photos, status updates and comments individual friends will be able to see.

Previously, many Facebook users have been adamantly opposed to changes made to the social networking site without their input. As such, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, took the extra step this time around of communicating these changes to each member and also implementing a testing period for some of these changes—such as regional networks—this past summer.