The social-networking site launched the changes yesterday, sparking a wave of criticism from civil liberties campaigners, digital rights groups and bloggers.
Users logging onto Facebook since yesterday would have immediately seen a pop-up asking whether they would like to update their privacy settings. The site said it hopes the changes would help users to manage their Facebook account, and what others could see, rather than revealing too much private information.
The Electric Frontier Foundation's Kevin Bankston said: 'The new changes are intended to simplify Facebook's notoriously complex privacy settings and, in the words of today's privacy announcement to all Facebook users, 'give you more control of your information.'
'These new 'privacy' changes are clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before. Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data.
'Not to say that many of the changes aren't good for privacy. But other changes are bad, while a few are just plain ugly.'
Facebook began testing the settings a few months ago. The changes let people decide who should see updates, whether all 350 million Facebook members should see them, and if they should be viewable across the web.
Barry Schnitt, a Facebook spokesman, said: 'Any suggestion that we're trying to trick them (users) into something would work against any goal that we have.'
But blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick said: 'This is not what Facebook users signed up for. It's not about privacy at all, it's about increasing traffic and the visibility of activity on the site.
'Information like your email address is recommended to remain limited to friends, but make no mistake about it - Facebook wants you to make the status messages you post visible to the entire internet.'
Users logging onto Facebook since yesterday would have immediately seen a pop-up asking whether they would like to update their privacy settings. The site said it hopes the changes would help users to manage their Facebook account, and what others could see, rather than revealing too much private information.
The Electric Frontier Foundation's Kevin Bankston said: 'The new changes are intended to simplify Facebook's notoriously complex privacy settings and, in the words of today's privacy announcement to all Facebook users, 'give you more control of your information.'
'These new 'privacy' changes are clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before. Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data.
'Not to say that many of the changes aren't good for privacy. But other changes are bad, while a few are just plain ugly.'
Facebook began testing the settings a few months ago. The changes let people decide who should see updates, whether all 350 million Facebook members should see them, and if they should be viewable across the web.
Barry Schnitt, a Facebook spokesman, said: 'Any suggestion that we're trying to trick them (users) into something would work against any goal that we have.'
But blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick said: 'This is not what Facebook users signed up for. It's not about privacy at all, it's about increasing traffic and the visibility of activity on the site.
'Information like your email address is recommended to remain limited to friends, but make no mistake about it - Facebook wants you to make the status messages you post visible to the entire internet.'
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