Following a drawn-out media and PR debacle, Facebook has decided to simplify privacy options for users.
Tim Sparapani, Facebook’s chief of public policy, said in a radio interview today that because so many people have expressed frustration and confusion with the network’s granular sharing and privacy options, “We are going to be providing options for users who want simplistic bands of privacy that they can choose from and I think we will see that in the next couple of weeks.”
“We have built a privacy setting for every new type of sharing [users] are allowed to have,” Sparapani said. “What that means is that in fact we have come up with an extraordinary number of privacy settings.”
“This should be compared to almost any other company out there where there are no privacy settings at all,” he added. “So Facebook should be getting credit here for giving tools in the first place.”
Sparapani also touted Facebook’s recent unveiling of the “Like” button and other features which let sites embed information from your friends around the web. Wired.com, among thousands of other sites have embedded the “Like” button, while an example of further integration can be seen on CNN.com.
“We have customized every single website out there for people who choose to have it,” Sparapani said in another portion of Tuesday’s interview, which you can watch below. “That is an extraordinary gift to the public.”
Debates around user identity and Facebook’s motives in taking over the web have gained force in recent weeks after the rollout of Facebook’s instant personalization features. There have even been user-led calls for a mass exodus from the network.
Facebook privacy settings changes over the past year or so and it always been in news.Are you excited or disappointed with Facebook’s new privacy changes take effect? Do you think most users really need simpler choices when it comes to online privacy?
Source : WIRED
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