Facebook gives privacy a check-up

Facebook has made its Privacy Checkup option available. The feature walks users through a few steps to help make sure that only the people they authorise can see their profile, timeline and photos.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced a new Privacy Checkup that walks users through a few steps to help make sure only the people they want can see their stuff. It is now available around the world for people using Facebook on desktop.

When you use the Checkup, you can review who you’re posting to on Facebook, which apps you’re using, and the privacy of key pieces of information on your profile. Although people can find it any time from Privacy Shortcuts, we’ve begun suggesting it to people when they visit News Feed (eventually we will suggest it to hundreds of millions of people on Facebook).

We know people come to Facebook to interact with their friends, not with us. But we know how important it is for everyone to be in control of what they share and who they share it with. And of the people who have started the Checkup to so far, three in four have completed all three steps. This includes things like changing the audience for their posts or contact information, removing old apps, or updating information in their profile.

It’s part of an ongoing effort to put more control in people’s hands, at the moment they need it. Our first Privacy Checkup helped people posting publicly make sure they were sharing with the right audience. We’ve redesigned and simplified our audience selectors across Facebook on desktop and mobile‚Äînow they explain the audience right where people post.

There’s more work for us to do here. We’ll be listening closely to people’s feedback about the new Checkup, improving it over time and thinking of new ways we can help everybody on Facebook share exactly what they want with who they want.

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