Facebook introduces new privacy education enhancement

Facebook has been pushing to make its privacy settings easier to understand and use. According to an announcement by the social networking giant, those signing up for a new account on Facebook will be greeted by a detailed description of how the privacy settings work.

According to the post by Facebook, “We’ve implemented these enhancements as part of our broader effort to integrate more privacy education into the new user experience. We appreciate the guidance on this effort that we’ve received from the Irish Data Protection Commissioner’s Office, the regulatory oversight agency for our services outside of the United States and Canada.”

Facebook now trains new users in its privacy options

Through the new feature, users will learn about default settings, selecting an audience for information shared on Timeline, access to their data, how they interact with applications, games and websites, how ads work on the site, tagging people and things, and finding friends on Facebook through search and contact importers.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Another new feature announced are the new in-line privacy controls that allow users to select an audience for their high school, college/ university, and employer when signing up.

It was recently revealed that Facebook is testing out a new single column Timeline design. If this design sees the light of day, users will be able to view all the posts in a single, vertical stream, instead of the current design that prods users to keep switching from right to left to view posts. As per Inside Facebook, the new design omits the line at the centre. The column with the dates, i.e., the Timeline can be viewed at the top right of the page. Those in Facebook’s test group have been spotting wider posts. “Modules like “Recent Activity,” “Friends,” “Places” and those for any Open Graph apps are all to the right, similar to how they are on the original Timeline. The difference in this design is that these modules are no longer the same size as posts, and when there are no more modules to show, the Timeline appears blank rather than filling in with status updates or wall posts,” adds the post.

Timeline essentially allows users to view their lives as on Facebook in chronological order, dotted with pictures, posts, videos and all. All the events in the life of the user, and the content he or she has posted, right from the date of creating the profile, is neatly arranged in chronological order, as if telling a story.

When the Timeline was introduced, not all users liked the idea of adopting the Timeline and sure enough, this compulsory transition is bound to face stiff resistance. The Telegraph quoted one user as saying, “I’m sorry but this is rubbish. I’m surprised Facebook hasn’t included a compulsory DNA profile section (default to public obviously).”