WebProNews

WebProNews just sat in on a conference call and webcast with Facebook, where the social network's upcoming changes to privacy settings were discussed. These were designed to give users more control over what they share with whom. Are you looking forward to privacy changes with Facebook? Share your thoughts.

The features were discussed a bit last week, but were elaborated much more in this discussion. The company made clear up front that the changes were not related to talk of a Facebook payment system, and have nothing to do with advertising or info that Facebook will make available to advertisers. Users still have control over what info is shared with advertisers.

Here is the slideshow that was presented:

Facebook says its mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. The new privacy controls enhance this and will allow people to share with as narrow or as broad of an audience as they want.

Facebook discussed the new features as broken down into three principles:

1.Control
2 Simplicity
3 Connecting

The changes were initiated by pain points that users made known to the company. The company acknowldged that privacy settings can add up and pile up over time, and not always be as clean a process as one would like. They wanted to simplify this.

Control

Facebook says when people can easily control the audience, they share more and more meaningfully. There is definitely something to that statement. It's a relevancy issue just as much as it is a privacy one. Certain status updates may be more appropropriate for a certain group of people.

Facebook has removed regional networks. The company says that these generated a lot of confusion and reduced user control. People were joining networks that they were not sure who all was in. It is a fragmented user experience. They say something like 50% of people don't even join them. They also said the concept doesn't really fit into the new model.

Simplicity

The new settings make privacy more simple. You can choose between the same set of privacy options throughout different features. There is a single set of privacy controls wherever you are on the site. If you make a change in one place, it stays consitent throughout the entire site. There will be a universal lock icon (as shown in the top image), so that you always know where you can adjust settings. They are consolidating six different privacy pages. For each setting, there is a question mark so you can tell exactly what each thing is for.

As far as sharing options, you can: 

- share with everyone

- share with friends and authenticated networks

- share with friends of friends

- share with your friends (like always)

- customize who all you are sharing with when you have specific pieces of content for sharing with a specific audience

Connecting

During the connecting part of the dicussion, they talked about the transition period, which is definitely important, considering how upset some users got after the big redesign of Facebook.

They are testing six different transition tools that users will see when the settings roll out. Basically, the company is just testing different ways to give users the ability to opt in to settings. They want to make sure that people really understand the changes that are happening.

When Facebook rolls them out, users will sign on to the site, see a transition tool, then they will be asked about settings. Once they provide their preferences, they will get a confirmation. Of course, settings will always be able to be adjusted on a post-by-post basis via the publisher box.

With regards to the "everyone" option, this is divided into two distinctions - minors and adults.

The new privacy settings and controls are still in the testing stages and will be rolling out soon. You're probably wondering if info will be indexable by search engines. Facebook says "It's certainly something we've talked about, but it's not like that at this time."

What do you think of the new privacy options? Do you intend to be more open or more private with your updates? What will be your default setting? Please share.