Facebook, If You're Serious About Privacy Controls, Let Me Control Them

[Commentary] Almost any change Facebook makes to privacy controls triggers outcries and accusations that the social network is continuing to erode any remaining confidence people might have sharing their data with the social network -- and justifiably so.

Yet Facebook just can't stop trying to win over hearts and minds. If it really wants to succeed, though, it needs to become a lot more transparent, and more lenient, about how it vacuums up data, what sort of data it keeps and what it does with it. While it’s smart of Facebook to be proactive about educating users on privacy controls and anticipating backlash, these changes don't go nearly far enough.

The company is still missing some key features that would prove it really takes privacy seriously. When Facebook was still a small and growing social network, it made sense for your personal information to be public so new friends or family that signed up for the service would be able to find you. But now, with over one billion users, many people have established their small piece of the social experience and don’t need to field any additional friend requests, while others just don’t want to be found at all.

In order to feel completely secure on Facebook, it should give users the opportunity to opt-out of search, or choose what part, if any, of their data can be publicly visible. Restricting cover photo viewing is a step in the right direction, but restricting or eliminating all required public information would boost confidence in users that Facebook is taking concerns seriously.