Facebook rolling out new privacy controls over next few days

Facebook Inc., under pressure to improve its privacy protections, will introduce new features to make it easier for users to control who views messages, photos and other shared items.

The Palo Alto, California-based website will place many privacy controls next to content that can be shared, instead of in a separate section that is harder to find, said Chris Cox, a vice president in charge of products at Facebook.

“We want to make it easy for people to understand exactly who can see everything and make it easier for them to share with exactly who they want,” Cox said. “We just think this will be a much more tactile and visual design and interface for helping them understand exactly who sees everything.”

Facebook, the world's largest social network, is retooling privacy settings after user complaints that the website didn't offer enough control over personal information. New features follow the company's effort last year to simplify sharing options, which U.S. lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union had criticized for their lack of privacy protections.

“We're trying to take a step in the right direction here, but obviously we're going to be really responsive to any feedback we get that says these controls could be clearer,” Cox said.

The changes, expected to be rolled out over the next few days, will let users customize privacy options for each piece of personal information on their profile, such as occupation, religion and education. There will be a drop-down menu next to each item for users to specify who should be allowed to access.

Facebook will also deploy new privacy features when someone “tags,” or identifies and connects a user to a photo or post on the site. Users will get the ability to approve or reject a tag before it's visible on their profile.

For each update posted on the site, new tools attached to that feature will let users customize which friends or other members on the site can view it. Access can also be changed after shared messages are posted.

Location tools, previously available only on mobile applications, will be added to desktop versions of Facebook.