What You Need to Know About Facebook's New Privacy Controls These features might make managing your company's Facebook page even easier.
By Jason Fell
Just when you thought you had a handle on posting content and growing an audience on Facebook, the giant social network has changed its rules again. This time, though, it says its goal is to make it easier for users to manage their content.
Today, Facebook announced a number of changes to its privacy controls, planned to go into effect in the next few weeks. Among the more significant changes are Privacy Shortcuts, an easier-to-use Activity Log and a new Request and Removal tool for managing photos you're tagged in.
"We continue to strive toward three main goals: 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," Sam Lessin, Facebook's director of product, wrote in a post.
Here's a look at some of the new changes coming before the end of the year and what you need to know.
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1. Updated Activity Log. Released last year, the Activity Log allows you to review and choose who sees everything you've shared. Facebook says the updated Activity Log has new navigation that will allow you to more easily track likes and comments, photos and posts you are tagged in. For busy entrepreneurs who use the Activity Log to schedule posts and manage content, this update presumably makes things easier by centralizing more features.
It also offers new ways to sort information, Facebook says. "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," Lessin wrote.
2. New Request and Removal tool. As a business owner, you should be aware of and carefully manage the photos that others can tag you or your business in. With the new Request and Removal tool -- located in the updated Activity Log -- simply go to the "Photos of You" tab, select as the photos and ask your friends to take down the shots you don't like. You can also "untag" yourself from multiple photos at once.
3. Privacy Shortcuts. No longer will it be necessary to navigate through a string of pages to get to your privacy and timeline settings. Facebook is rolling out shortcuts that will allow users to manage "Who can see my stuff?" "Who can contact me?" and "How do I stop someone from bothering me?" all from shortcuts in the top toolbar.
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4. App permissions. A new feature will allow you to manage the permissions that you grant to apps separately, instead of together on the same screen. This can allow you, for instance, to grant an app the ability to read your public profile and friends list but decline to allow it to post your activity on the app to your News Feed.
Which features do you wish Facebook would add? Let us know in the comments below.
