Facebook Privacy Control Adjustments Mimic Google+'s

By Simon Saavedra, Christian Post Correspondent Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Facebook on Tuesday announced via blog post that it is giving users more control over privacy settings ranging from posts, pictures and tags to viewing their own profile page.

The adjustments are intended to give Facebook users clearer and more straightforward control over what they want on their profile page, who gets and doesn't get to see posts/pictures, when they want or don't want to be tagged in photos – options that should simplify the task that used to be rather confusing and time-consuming under Facebook's previous control settings.

Facebook seems to be following the footsteps of rapidly growing rival, Google+, which introduced many of Facebook's now "new features" back when it was first launched almost roughly two months ago.

Posts

Now, when you share posts on FB, an inline drop down menu next to the "Post" button will allow you to select the specific group of people you want the post to be shared with much like Google+, only that in G+ the selection is made among your "circles."

Before: FB had you browsing through the settings page to make several adjustments before allowing your posts to be more or less public.

You will now be able to edit who can see your posts after you post if you change your mind or accidentally posted it, just like G+.

Before: Once the status update was posted, you couldn't change who could see it.

Inline drop down menu allows instant filtering of who gets to see your post and who doesn't. | (Image: Facebook Blog)

Pictures

Like posts, an inline drop down menu next to the "Post" button will instantly enable you to select the specific list of people you want the picture to be shared with. Guess what, Google+ has this too.

Tags

Before: Anyone enabled to see your photos or posts was able to add tags on them.

Now: FB will always ask you to approve or reject the tags someone tries to add to your photos and posts before it is posted. Great, but largely similar Google+. Google+ defaults to enabling tags to be made available to the public.

Tags must be approved by user before they are added to the post or picture. | (Image: Facebook Blog)

Facebook's blog reads that these significant changes come because "you have told us that 'who can see this?' could be clearer across Facebook, so we have made changes to make this more visual and straightforward." It seems though the changes are geared more toward keeping its service up to speed with the competition it's receiving from Google+ that is trying to re-shape the social networking experience.

For the complete set of Facebook privacy setting changes and adjustments visit Facebook's blog.