Google and Facebook Concerned Over Privacy

Facebook has been topping the headlines with their privacy settings issues that affect all of their 400 million users.  So, what is going on with Mark Zuckerberg and all of his friends at Facebook?  They have been receiving a lot of heat for their lack of privacy and bulky privacy settings page.  The current privacy settings are defaulted to public, and you have to navigate your way through about 170 different granular settings to make the switch to having a more private setting.  Facebook users have been voicing their concerns for months about the default privacy settings and awkward granular privacy settings page.  Finally, Facebook has listened to the users and will be making significant changes to their privacy.  The changes will include;

• Sharing
  • One page of privacy settings that will have a default privacy setting, along with separate levels of privacy.
  
  
  • Granular controls are still available to use, but do not have to be used.


• Basic Directory Information
  • Less publically available information.
  
  
  • Only necessary information for people to find you on the site.


• Platforms
  • Control over what applications (Farmville, Mafia Wars, etc) and sites have access to your information.

You can read more about the updated privacy settings on Facebook.  Mark Zuckerberg also posted a nice blog and video today reviewing the changes to the privacy settings. These new privacy controls will start taking effect gradually over the next few weeks, so you wont see them right away.   If you are interested in changing your privacy settings, you can log into your Facebook account, go to Account, and select privacy settings.