Facebook Gives Users More Privacy Control

Don't want future employers to see those party pictures? Done!

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 9, 2009 4:12 PM CST

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Facebook Gives Users More Privacy Control — Joshua Lipton posted this "jailbird" photo on Facebook two weeks after he was charged in a DUI accident. Prosecutors used it to portray him as unrepentant, and he got 2 years in prison as a result. (AP Photo/State of Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General)

New Facebook privacy settings will give users fine-grain control over who can see specific pieces or areas of content—so you can share your drunken party photos with a select group of friends, but keep them invisible to the general public. The site is also enacting bigger changes: regional networks are going away, and profiles of users under 18 will only be viewable by friends and fellow members of school networks.

The new controls, which all users will be forced to set in the coming weeks, divide visitors to your profile into (at least) four groups: friends, friends of friends, everyone, and customize—with "customize" giving the ability to divide friends into smaller groups. Every category of content on your page, like status updates, photos, about me, and even specific entries, can be set to a different level of viewability.
(More Facebook stories.)

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