Blog
Facebook adds some privacy control
Posted April 25, 2011 | By Hilary Smith, Customer Support Manager | Filed under: Social Media
Facebook recently announced new "privacy" controls, allowing users slightly finer control of with whom they share posts and updates, as well as content from other websites, and within Groups. In the past, Facebook has usually encouraged "sharing", so even if you had put some privacy controls on your basic information, so that your Facebook profile wouldn't come up in a Google Search, or display all your personal information to somebody you hadn't "friended", all of your "friends" could see your posts and personal information. Some people were initially a little uneasy with this sharing structure, not sure that they'd want to share "everything" with "everybody" they happened to be friends with. There were especially uproars from various camps, during Facebook's initial growth period, as it expanded from only allowing college students at one university (you know which one by now), to "other universities", that weren't even Ivy League. Now of course, everybody and their dog (and cat) is on Facebook, and most of the world has learned the rules of "what to share" and "what not to share". For people who don't necessarily want to share everything with everybody, Facebook has recently announced the new "Send" button, which can be which can be “Like” button can be placed under posts, so that people can add that information to their Facebook pages. People can then choose to “send” a blog post, or article to certain “groups” of friends that they may have created within Facebook, or certain “individual” friends only. This is different from “sharing” with everybody in their Facebook world.
Similarly, the Groups functionality has been updated. Previously, users could establish Closed and Secret Groups, and limit membership. But non-admins could “add” people without first getting permission, perhaps allowing unwanted users to see private content. Now admins of Closed and Secret Groups can set the group up so that all new members “require” approval from an admin, before being allowed to see the content. Any “old” Groups created under the old regime, will be notified and allowed to upgrade and move their content.