Published Date: September 25, 2006

This is a great move by the Facebook team- They’ve LISTENED! Following the uproar over the announcement that facebook is going to open up its registration, Facebook has implemented new privacy controls for their users based on feedback received. Facebook rebounded from the outcry about their newsfeed feature in a similar manner- by listening to users and giving them what they ask for. They are definitely winning the trust of users by taking action to address user concerns before adding the next site addition- an open registration.

Here’s the statement I found when I logged into facebook yesterday-

More Privacy Controls

Last week we asked you guys what privacy controls you thought were necessary for the upcoming expansion. We read all of your suggestions and we have built these controls:

  • Hide yourself from all people in a type of network (e.g. people only in a region, high schoolers) in searches.
  • Prevent people in those networks from messaging, poking and adding you as a friend.
  • Control whether your picture shows up in your search listing.

These controls are all under the Search section of the My Privacy page. As always, please send us feedback here.

Once again, Facebook “gets it.” They have a bright future if they continue down this path of giving users what they want. I encourage all the other Web 2.0 companies out there to learn from what facebook has done recently. The lesson here? Listen to your users!