Facebook under fire over change to privacy settings

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 22:20

SOCIAL networking website Facebook was yesterday criticised for changes to its privacy settings which it said would allow users to share more.

The company said its current system, under which users have specific controls over individual features, was no longer fit for purpose.

Instead it is testing standardised privacy settings for all the different applications and features available through the site.

In a post on the site's official blog, Chris Kelly, the group's chief privacy officer, said: "The compounding effect of more and more settings has made controlling privacy on Facebook too complicated."

The site would "simplify" settings by putting them all on the same page and making sure that the privacy options for different features were the same, he said.

However, the moves provoked concern, because the settings listed as recommended disclose much of the user's information to strangers.

"There's both good and bad," said Computeractive magazine deputy editor Tom Royal.

"I'm a little bit worried about the recommended settings, because as far I can see it's actually sharing quite a lot of information with quite a few people … We would very much recommend people choose the 'limited' option instead.

"For example, just your date of birth can be a security question on many internet applications."

Under the new system, users will be able to decide the privacy settings for each piece of content they publish on their page.