Facebook overhauls privacy settings to secure users’ personal information

Facebook is once again in the process of overhauling its settings as it seeks to secure privacy in social-networking even as it undertakes moves to let users exercise more control over what they shared and with whom.

The revamped privacy standards which the company is pushing to implement mark the social networking giant's latest effort to burnish its soiled reputation and tighten the safeguards around the personal information of the site's more than 750 million users.

According to analysts, the new privacy settings might also signal a response to the emergence of Google+, a social network that drew enthusiastic cheers from users for its privacy controls at the time of its launch by rival Google Inc less than two months ago. The internet search giant's latest social networking foray is being viewed as a potential competitor to Facebook.

According to Facebook officials, the new settings, which would be rolled out to all users over the coming weeks, were part of a "proactive and global effort" to give users a better idea of what would be visible of their postings to Facebook users as also what profile was visible to their friends and to the broader web.

"People should never have to wonder when they post something on Facebook who is going to see it," Meredith Chin, Facebook's manager of product communications, said during a briefing with reporters. "This is about moving privacy settings to the forefront."

Postings on Facebook would now would have their own unique privacy settings and when users are tagged in a posting - such as a photograph or video - they would opt to  confirm or remove their identity before it appeared on their profile.