Facebook announced a series of changes a few days ago that will allow its members to more easily understand and define who they are “visible to.” The changes were paved by statements made by Mark Zuckerberg, who claimed that it is a priority for the social network to offer its 1.3 billion users the best possible control over their privacy.
Of course, such statements are diametrically opposed to the strategy that Facebook has had almost since its creation, encouraging its members to "expose" their lives to a common "view". As well as to what its founder proclaimed until a few years ago - for example, mentioning in an interview in 2010 that with the spread of the Internet, people have practically renounced their privacy, as they share online and publicly more and more important and insignificant things that concern them. However, it seems that Zuckerberg has now made a 180-degree turn and, instead of, for example, "the end of the era of privacy", he wants Facebook to protect personal data even better.
This shift is illustrated by the way Facebook describes its new “Privacy Checkup” tool, perhaps the most significant of the changes. “The new tool was developed to help users be sure they are sharing information only with the audiences they want,” Facebook’s official website states, noting that the new feature will be available across the social network in a few weeks. From then on, all account holders on the platform will “check-up” on their profile at regular intervals, essentially reviewing all of their privacy settings.
Thus, with the help of the tool, they will be able to check which other users have access to which of their data (even their email address or phone number), making any changes immediately. They will also be able to see what information they give access to in the applications they use. The “Privacy Check” will even have a mascot – a blue cartoon dinosaur, which will explain the process to the user step by step.
"Visible" publications
The same cartoon accompanies another new feature, again intended for existing members, that has made its appearance on the platform. This time, the goal is to notify users who have left their posts "visible" publicly for a long time, in order to remind them that they can change the corresponding option and thus limit the number of people who can "see" their posts.
A change to better protect privacy awaits those who will register on Facebook from now on, since the default setting for new users' publications is now to be shared with their "friends" and not publicly, as was the case until now. As the social network states, the reason is that "we understand that it is much worse to accidentally share with everyone something that you only wanted to share with your friends, than the other way around." At the same time, Facebook will inform new members of the default setting before they make their first post, reminding them that they can change it at any time.
As a large number of users now access the social network through mobile devices, Facebook applications for smartphones and tablets could not be left out of the more effective control of the audience of posts. In this case, the change concerns the design of the application, where the choice for the audience of a post (e.g. "friends" or public) has been moved just above the "window" of the text, so that it is even easier to remember to make the corresponding setting. Finally, Facebook now allows you to hide previous cover photos, for which until now the only option was public viewing.
Reasons for changing course
Several analysts believe that behind Facebook's decision to better control privacy lies the pressure it receives from the Personal Data Protection Authorities in many countries around the world. On the other hand, the New York Times argues that, more than a maneuver, the change of course is due to the fact that the network's managers fear that if the management of personal data on the platform is not improved, then users will simply turn their backs on it. Although the goal remains to update its members' profiles as often as possible, the newspaper adds, Facebook now believes that this will only happen if they are sure that their information will reach the audience they trust.
Moreover, the social network has not stopped developing new features that involve sensitive information – a recent example is the “Ask” button, which will allow a user to ask their “friends” if they are married, “single” or in a relationship. However, the response to the online… flirtation can be done with a private message, which means that it will be known only to the recipient of the message and, of course, to the social network.
The belief that privacy is now a “ticket” to greater popularity was the argument Mark Zuckerberg used at the F8 conference in early May to convince developers to integrate the ability for new users to register anonymously through Facebook into their applications. In this way, he argued, an application can gain the trust of users who would never try it if they had to give it their personal data in the first place.
Source: kathimerini.gr
