privacy settings

12 Stories

Facebook Overhauls Privacy Controls

You'll now have more visible controls, the ability to approve tags of yourself

(Newser) - Facebook will go live with a host of changes over the next few days designed to address its ever-present privacy concerns. Now, instead of hiding all your privacy controls in the account settings menu, Facebook will display a drop-down menu next to each element of your profile, letting you dictate...

EU Demands Better Privacy for Facebook Users

New rules will call for improvements on social networking sites

(Newser) - The EU is demanding enhanced privacy on Facebook and other social networking sites, calling for a “right to be forgotten." The justice commissioner will unveil rules before summer demanding, among other things, that strict privacy settings be the default for users. Sites like Facebook “can't think they're...

Google 'Sorry', Tweaks Buzz After Privacy Gaffe

Automatic contact list population will now be 'auto-suggest,' and more

(Newser) - Following an outpouring of ire concerning the privacy features—or lack thereof—of its new Buzz social networking client, Google issued an apology and announced it will soon add new settings. “We quickly realized that we didn't get everything quite right,” an exec writes on the search giant’...

Facebook Gives Users More Privacy Control

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

(Newser) - 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...

Facebook Crosses Line on Privacy ... Again
Facebook Crosses Line
on Privacy ... Again
ANALYSIS
Jul 28, 2009 12:54 PM CDT

Facebook Crosses Line on Privacy ... Again

Recognize that face in an ad? It could be your friend—or you.

(Newser) - Imagine Peter Smith’s surprise when an ad for “hot singles” on Facebook featured a picture of … his wife. The site blames that flap on a third-party company violating policy, but the incident underscores Facebook’s notoriously unclear privacy settings, writes Bob Sullivan for MSNBC: “A hard-to-spot...

Facebook Streamlines Clunky Privacy Settings

(Newser) - Facebook is starting a pilot program to test a more user-friendly version of its sprawling privacy controls, CNET reports. The 40 different settings now occupy six separate pages, and are so complicated that many users ignore them completely. “These can add up and pile up and not be as...

Watchdog Wants More Privacy From Google
Watchdog Wants More Privacy From Google
ANALYSIS
Nov 4, 2008 2:31 PM CST

Watchdog Wants More Privacy From Google

Incognito mode should be default setting on Chrome browser

(Newser) - Nonprofit Consumer Watchdog is urging Google to make the “incognito” setting—which can limit the search giant’s ability to pin down users’ locations and keep tabs on their search and other data—the default mode on its new Chrome browser, Chris Thompson writes in the Big Money. It...

Explorer 8's Privacy Feature Boon to Users
Explorer 8's Privacy Feature Boon to Users
ANALYSIS
Aug 27, 2008 4:05 PM CDT

Explorer 8's Privacy Feature Boon to Users

... though advertisers surely won't like Microsoft's addition

(Newser) - The privacy features available with the next version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer will appeal to users “paranoid or perverted,” Peter Bright writes on Ars Technica, but will “go some way to curtailing the power of large Internet companies to monitor how people are using the web....

After Beacon 'Screw Up' Facebook Ups Privacy

Online chat coming too

(Newser) - Facebook is launching a series of new privacy features today, allowing users to better pinpoint who can see which parts of their information, PC World reports. Privacy has been a watchword at Facebook ever since the PR disaster that was the Beacon advertising platform, which tracked users online. “With...

Private Photos Find Way to Online Viewers

Case of circumvented Flickr privacy settings has parents worried

(Newser) - The privacy settings on online photo-sharing sites aren’t always foolproof, as one Washington mother discovered. After posting pictures of her kids skinny-dipping on Flickr and marking them “private,” she found recently that they had been viewed thousands of times, the Washington Post reports. "Are creepy people...

Don't Let Facebook De-Face You
Don't Let Facebook De-Face You
Oct 29, 2007 1:35 PM CDT

Don't Let Facebook De-Face You

Protect your offline reputation on social networking sites with these six steps

(Newser) - Social-networking sites make it easier to connect with friends and make new ones, but they also let casual acquaintances  like co-workers—or your boss—look you up on a whim.  Protect your privacy with these six steps from MarketWatch:
  1. Look for tools that allow you to restrict access to
...

Brits Embrace Facebook, Pay the Price
Brits Embrace Facebook, Pay the Price
Jul 18, 2007 12:32 PM CDT

Brits Embrace Facebook, Pay the Price

Photos in 'private' online profiles land Oxford students in hot water

(Newser) - Miss New Jersey may never be mistaken for a Rhodes Scholar, but unlike some British university students, she knows how to make sure her Facebook profile is private. The social-networking site that nearly brought down the beauty queen is wreaking havoc across the Atlantic, with Oxford students facing disciplinary action...

12 Stories