FaceBook Makes Improvements to its Privacy & Control Settings

FaceBook has announced a range of significant improvements to its privacy, sharing, and tagging controls.  These changes will give users more control over their account, allowing them to decide who sees what on their profile and who can tag your photos.

Inline profile controls will make it easier for you to change the settings on your profile.  An icon with a drop down menu will appear next to content letting you easily make changes to who can view it.  It is also now possible to see what your profile looks like to others.  Although this has always been possible, the tool was buried in the settings, whereas now it is easy to access at the top of the profile page.

One of the main points of feedback Facebook has received from its users concerns the lack of control over tagged photos on your profile.  Going forward users will have the power to approve or reject any photos they have been tagged in before they appear on their profile.  The same will apply when someone tries to add a tag to an existing picture of you.

Some internet marketing consultants have speculated that these privacy and control updates are a response to Google+.  Even though Facebook has denied this and said the changes are simply a response to feedback from its users, the fact remains that they have reduced the advantage Google had over them.  Before now, Google+ had distinctly better inline sharing and privacy controls than Facebook, so Google will need to keep innovating if they want to maintain any sort of edge over the world's most popular social network.