Facebook revising privacy

2009-07-02 22:08

Washington - Facebook is revising its privacy settings to give the more than 200 million users of the social network the ability to share as much or as little about themselves online as they want.

The chief privacy officer at the Palo Alto, California-based company, Chris Kelly, outlined the changes in a post on the Facebook blog.

Kelly said Facebook would now offer a tiered level of privacy options for its users including "all of your friends, your friends and people in your school or work networks, and friends of friends."

There is also an option to publicly share with everyone on the web in what is being seen as an effort by Facebook to compete with the hot micro-blogging service Twitter.

"To share with more people and contribute to the general conversation going on in the world, you can select 'Everyone,'" Kelly said.

He said "the power to share is the cornerstone of Facebook".

Kelly acknowledged that the privacy settings on Facebook had become "too complicated" and the changes were an effort to "reduce confusion".

- SAPA