Facebook Privacy Settings Just Scattered: Should You Care?
Facebook just scattered their Privacy Settings to a set of "other categories" throughout the service. This means that while you might've previously had the opportunity to drop in to the single Privacy Settings section of the Facebook app/webpage to address all of your concerns, now you'll need to seek and tap each item in different places. This redesign is hidden in a Facebook presentation called "making it easier to navigate settings."Facebook suggested this week that they've "redesigned the Facebook Settings page to make our tools easier to find." They maintain that all settings previously available remain available now – they just might be in different places than they were before. Now, settings are grouped into six broad categories:
• Account
• Preferences
• Audience and Visibility
• Permissions
• Your Information
• Community Standards and Legal Policies
They allude to "a series of user research studies" conducted by the Facebook Privacy Research team. They've separated categories based on "mental models." Mental models "refer to users' beliefs about how a system works." The TTC Labs post (from Facebook) explains the mental models system.
SEE TOO: Another reason to delete Facebook
You can still attempt to find all the Privacy Settings in a web browser with the Facebbok Privacy Settings and Tools page, if it still exists by the time you're reading this article. Or drop in on the Privacy Checkup page, as Facebook maintains that they'll continue to utilize said system to make Privacy Settings easy to use and modify.
Starting with updates to apps on August 4 for iOS, Android, mobile web (in browsers), and on FB Lite, Settings will be reorganized. We are HOPING that the entire system will be as Facebook claims they're it'll be: Easier to navigate, with "privacy in mind." Given what we've seen of Facebook's many, many changes to privacy settings and less-than-stellar responses to privacy leaks and related matters in the past, including in the very recent past, we can only really cross our fingers and see.