Facebook’s newly announced privacy changes are one of the biggest privacy overhauls in the company’s history. Recent updates include over a dozen changes to profiles, status updates, and even tags.
While not all of these features are completely new, many are being relocated from rarely-visited privacy settings pages to more convenient spots like the news feed and profile pages. New inline profile controls allow you to control visibility of nearly every bit of information you share.
We’ve compiled the following list of updates to help you get familiar with the changes:
Profile
Major changes include:
- Greater profile control: Profile visibility controls now appear directly next to content when you edit your profile.
- In-line cues: Facebook will display a globe, friend or gear icon to indicate whether a piece of content is public, only seen by friends or customized for a friend group or list.
- “View Profile As”: The “View Profile As” feature has been moved from the Privacy Settings Page to the top right-hand corner of the user profile.
- Overhaul of the Privacy Page: The privacy overhaul will result in a much cleaner and simpler Privacy Page, since most of the privacy settings are now integrated at the profile page level.
Tags
Major changes include:
- Tag reviews: Facebook has implemented a system where users can approve or reject photo, status or location tags before they appear on their profiles.
- Photo tagging changes: Because of the tag reviews feature, Facebook felt comfortable allowing a user to tag anybody in a photo, regardless of whether they are friends. This makes it simpler to tag people in group shots. Users must approve these tags before they appear on a user’s profile.
- Tags in the Publisher Box: It’s easier to see who is being tagged in a status update. The left-hand side of the Publisher Box now includes an area for managing tags.
- New untagging features: If a user untags oneself from a photo, they will be given the option to send a request to the photo’s uploader to remove it. They will also have the option of blocking that person entirely.
Status Updates & Location
Major changes include:
- Public updates: The “Everyone” option in status updates has been renamed “Public” for greater clarity.
- No more lock icon: The lock icon under the Publisher Box has also been changed. It will now display the globe, friend or gear icon based on whether the update is public, for friends or custom.
- Facebook Places integration: Facebook Places has been integrated into the Publisher Box. Users can now tag a location into any status update. The same applies to photos and photo albums.
- No more GPS restriction: Users can now tag any location in a status update or photo, regardless of whether they’re actually nearby. This makes it possible tag a location for a photo album after the user has returned home.
- Mobile changes: The Facebook Places icon will no longer appear in the mobile apps. Instead a “Nearby” icon will take its place. It will display which users have tagged their location nearby.
Want to know more? Head on over to Facebook and dig into the details.