Facebook believes that the better you understand who can see the things you share, the better your experience on Facebook can be.
So it decided to bring these updates including Privacy Shortcuts, an easier-to-use Activity Log, and a new Request and Removal tool for managing multiple photos you’re tagged in. It’s also adding new in-product education that makes key concepts around controlling your sharing clearer, such as in-context reminders about how stuff you hide from timeline may still appear in news feed, search, and other places.
Facebook says it continues to strive toward three main goals of bringing controls in context where you share, helping you understand what appears where as you use Facebook, and providing tools to help you act on content you don’t like. So below are the in depth insights in to what Facebook means;
In Context: More controls right where you need them
Privacy Shortcuts
Up until now, if you wanted to change your privacy and timeline controls on Facebook, you would need to stop what you’re doing and navigate through a separate set of pages. This has changed, with the new shortcuts you can easily do with out living what you are doing . Now, for key settings, you just go to the toolbar to help manage “Who can see my stuff?” “Who can contact me?” and “How do I stop someone from bothering me?” You can also access Help Center content from these shortcuts.
App Permissions
The first time you log into a new app, it asks for permission to use your info to personalize your experience. Some apps also ask to post to Facebook.These two requests have been part of the same screen and happened at the same time. But soon you’ll start to see these requests happen separately, so you have more control over what you share.
Many of the apps you use will move to this new model, but some will not – for example, games apps on Facebook.com will not change. Facebook suggests if you need more information on how these new permissions will work, see developer blog.
Retiring the old “Who can look up my timeline by name?” setting
Facebook started as a directory service for college students, and today it offers a whole variety of services, such as news feed, photo uploads and mobile messaging. As it’s services have evolved, the settings have to take the same path.
We all used to have a setting called “Who can look up my timeline by name,” which controlled if someone could be found when other people typed their name into the Facebook search bar. The setting was very limited in scope, and didn’t prevent people from finding others in many other ways across the site.
Now because of it’s limits in nature of setting, it has been removed from people who weren’t using it, and Facebook has built new, contextual tools, along with education about how to use them. In the coming weeks, Facebook will be retiring this setting for the small percentage of people who still have it.
Updated Activity Log
Last year it introduced Activity Log. Activity Log makes it easy to see the things you’ve posted on Facebook, make changes to the audience of past photos and other posts, and choose what appears on your timeline.
The updated Activity Log has new navigation, so you can easily review your own activity on Facebook, such as your likes and comments, photos of you, and posts you’ve been tagged in. It also has new ways to sort information, for example: Now you can quickly see public photos you’re tagged in and have hidden from your timeline, but which still appear in other places on Facebook.
Within the updated Activity Log, you now have a Request and Removal tool for taking action on multiple photos you’re tagged in. If you spot things you don’t want on Facebook, now it’s even easier to ask the people who posted them to remove them.
Go to the “Photos of You” tab, select multiple photos, and ask friends to take down the shots you don’t like – you can even include a message about why this is important to you. The tool also lets you untag multiple photos at once, keeping in mind that while untagged photos don’t appear on your timeline, they can still appear in other places on Facebook, such as search, news feed, or your friends’ timelines.
Facebook promises to roll these updates and new tools out before end of this year 2012.
