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Facebook users all have the same nightmare: that their friends—true and loyal comrades that they are—would tag them in the most incriminating photo during their last Friday night out of drunken fun and inebriated charades.
But with Facebook's plan to revamp its privacy settings, users can now say goodbye to embarassing photos on their profile pages, as they are now given the power to veto the tag and prevent further humiliation, among other new features the social networking giant is rolling out to users soon.
In a blog post, Facebook's vice president of product Christopher Cox outlined the upcoming security tweaks, which also include: inline profile controls; content tag review; inline controls (on the status update textbox) on who could see your posts; and tagging locations in posts, among others.
"You have told us that 'who can see this?' could be clearer across Facebook, so we have made changes to make this more visual and straightforward," Cox explained.
"The main change is moving most of your controls from a settings page to being inline, right next to the posts, photos and tags they affect," he added.
More control of tags
Some updates which Facebook has announced are cosmetic (such as the shift from the world "Everyone" to "Public"), while some add mor feadures to the already widely used social network (such as the integration of what used to be a mobile-only "Places" feature into its web counterpart).
But a lot of the tweaks were made on the way people tag their friends—be it through a photo or a status update.
Cox said one of the top requests Facebook had heard is for the ability to approve these tags before they show up on one's profile.
Users also now get clearer options for removing tags or content on Facebook, with the following options: removing from your profile; removing the tag itself; messaging the photo owner or tagger; requesting the content to be taken down.
To better manage all the content users have been tagged in, Facebook likewise introduced a "Pending Posts" tool which acts as a nerve center where users can quickly approve or reject posts on the fly.
"You can choose to use the new tool to approve or reject any photo or post you are tagged in before it's visible to anyone else on your profile," he said.
Additionally, aside from being able to tag friends, users can now tag anyone else on Facebook, eliminating the necessity to have to "friend" someone just to be able to tag them in a photo.
"If you are ever tagged by a non-friend, it won't appear on your profile unless you review and approve the post," Cox clarified.
Finer sharing options
Cox said it will now be "more visually straightforward" to understand and control who can see one's posts at the time one shares them.
Controls for who could see stuff on Facebook used to be buried on a settings page a few clicks away, but now, the control for who can see each post will be right next to the status textbox, and will be presented more conspicuously.
"For each audience, there is now an icon and label to help make it easier to understand and decide who you're sharing with," Cox said. "Also, when you tag someone, the audience label will automatically update to show that the person tagged and their friends can see the post."
He said the sharing options will expand over time to include smaller groups of people a user may want to share with, like co-workers, Friend Lists, and Groups.
But what if a user accidentally shares content to the wrong set of friends? Cox said they can now change who can see any post after the fact.
"If you accidentally posted something to the wrong group, or changed your mind, you can adjust it with the inline control at any time," he said.
Meanwhile, on the user's profile, Facebook added inline controls which will appear next to an icon and a drop-down menu so users can pick which specific content are available to a certain group of people.
Before this update, these settings used to appear on the somewhat hidden "Privacy Settings" page on Facebook.
"This inline menu lets you know who can see this part of your profile, and you can change it with one click," Cox added.
Google envy?
Technology blog TechCrunch, which described the revamp as a "massive kitchen sink update," noted how many of Facebook's new features can already be found on Google+.
Asked if it was Google+ that prompted such massive changes on Facebook, the report said Facebook's claim is they've been at it for about six months already, well before the launch of Google's new social network.
"Facebook knew Google [is] launching a social network that would try to underscore all of its flaws—note how many of these features are already live on Google+—so it preemptively started working to fix the things that annoy people about Facebook," it stressed.
Users on Facebook's original post announcing the changes have also started to point out how the new features are so much like the ones that Google+ already had at launch.
User Bryndon Coughlin, for instance, posted a comment saying: "aka Google+," to which another user responded: "without the nice graphics, and with actual belief in the importance of user privacy questionable."
"Too late, Google+ is waaay ahead of you guys," added user Fernando Suastegui.
Edgar Valdmanis, on the other hand, blasted Facebook's critics, saying: "I quite like these changes. Some argue that G+ had them first, so what? They're here now, let's just enjoy."
But what's missing?
Despite the changes, computer security firm Sophos said Facebook was not able to address the more fundamental privacy issues on the site.
Sophos reiterated that Facebook "should no longer share any more information without its users' express agreement."
Instead, Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley said Facebook "has time and time again eroded privacy [by] introducing new features which share additional information about their users, assuming they want the featured turned on."
"In other words, the onus has been on users to keep a close eye on what Facebook is up to, and OPT-OUT when the firm introduces something they may not want to happen to their personal information," he added.
Cluley maintained Facebook should become truly opt-in "not just on the basis that a new user opts in altogether by joining Facebook in the first place, but on the basis that everything is locked down until a new user opens up each feature." —JMT/RSJ, GMA News
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