Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes as Facebook revealed it now had more than 350 million users worldwide. It means that in the next couple of weeks, Facebook users will be asked to review and update privacy settings.
In , Zuckerberg said that with some regional networks now having millions of members, a privacy setting based on which region a user is based in was largely meaningless.
The introduction of individual privacy levels was in response to requests from members.
Zuckerberg said: "We're adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we'll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings."
When users have finished reviewing their settings, a confirmation page will be displayed. Settings can still be adjusted whenever users want.
Privacy has always been a bone of contention between some Facebook members and the company. In 2007 Facebook ran into trouble over plans to introduce a system called Beacon that would share user data with advertisers.
The aim was to deliver ads that were tailored to individual users, but members complained that their privacy was being compromised by the software.
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