This is not the first time that Facebook is revamping it privacy settings. But no matter how many times, this social network tries to revise its confidentiality settings, it is always disturbing and irritating for the users. For many of those in frequent users, it even becomes a discouraging aspect which prevents them from coming back to Facebook time and again.
But a word of encouragement for such users – the change is not all that bad. In fact all the management tasks, notifications and other buttons have all come up front instead of being pushed in the back shelf. This saves a lot of time and hassle. However, if the new privacy settings are going way past your head then read on ahead because here we have tried to create a guide that would take you through the new privacy settings step by step.
The biggest change that has come about, is the fact that the new privacy settings button has come to the home page, right next to the ‘Home’ button in the drop down menu on top. This has made it easier to block unwanted users from seeing your personal stuff. The settings are much more elaborate as well; it is far easier to understand the different options now than it was before. For example, you now have the option of ‘Who can contact me?’, ‘Who can see my stuff?’ and ‘How do I stop someone from bothering me?’
The elaborate options which further open up into more specific categories are not the only user friendly aspect of the new privacy settings, the language, too, is quite easy to understand.
By clicking this settings button on top, the most frequently used setting options drop down. However one can find more options in ‘See More Settings’ further below. If you are still unable to locate the particular setting that you are interested in, then click on the little magnifying glass in the top right corner, write down what you want to search and press Enter.
You must be familiar with the Activity Log feature of Facebook. You can find the Activity Log button right under your cover photo in your profile. The Activity Log feature was added last year so that a user can see all his previous activities on Facebook. However, all the activities had been thrown together earlier which included the photos you tagged, the comments you entered, your Shares and your Likes. With the changes that have been brought to Facebook, the Activity Log has been revamped altogether as well. Activity Log is now filled with a lot of filters which is useful in categorizing and managing all the past activities. You can now view your past activities that have been categorized as photos, likes, comments, your posts, others’ posts, news, app activities etc.
- There is an improved ‘View As’ feature as well in Facebook. It is a useful tool and it lets a user see how his profile appears to someone else viewing in. you can go to the ‘View As’ option from the drop down settings menu. You will notice a thin black bar will appear just under the main Menu bar. Here you can enter any of your contact’s names and you will be able to see how your profile appears to that particular friend.
If your friends, or friends of friends often include you or tag you in distasteful photos, comments or requests, then you are going to love the new request removal tool. With this tool it is really easy to send requests to everyone to exempt your name from being tagged in unwanted stuff and to take down the questionable material down from Facebook. With this feature, you can not only remove all the unwanted tags immediately, you can also request the removal of the problematic posts and pictures. The tool can be found in the Activity Log as ‘Report/Remove Tags’ button.
Oh, and you are going to notice the little pop-ups that frequently emerge on the screen, every time you press one of the privacy-related buttons. Facebook has tried to make things really easy for all its users. In case you don’t know what purpose each button serves in the privacy settings, the little pop-up box that emerges when you press the button is going to explain everything for you.
You are now going to see some changes when you visit your Messages page. Facebook has introduced many filters here as well. Now you can induce more strict filtering as to who can and cannot send you messages. You will be given two options – ‘Basic Filtering’ and ‘Strict Filtering.’ The Strict Filtering will allow only your friends to send messages to you, while Basic Filtering will also let the people you may know to send you messages.
