Facebook recently made a big update to Graph Search, and the social network is removing a feature that allows users to select who can search for their Timeline.
Titled “Who can look up your Timeline by name?,” a year after announcing its removal, Facebook is now in the final stages.
Chief Privacy Officer Michael Richter made the announcement today, and said that people still using the setting will be reminded of its removal “over the coming weeks.”
Richter went on to explain why Facebook is removing the feature:
The setting was created when Facebook was a simple directory of profiles and it was very limited. For example, it didn’t prevent people from navigating to your Timeline by clicking your name in a story in News Feed, or from a mutual friend’s Timeline. Today, people can also search Facebook using Graph Search (for example, “People who live in Seattle,”) making it even more important to control the privacy of the things you share rather than how people get to your Timeline.
The setting also made Facebook’s search feature feel broken at times. For example, people told us that they found it confusing when they tried looking for someone who they knew personally and couldn’t find them in search results, or when two people were in a Facebook Group and then couldn’t find each other through search.
Before you start crying foul over a further erosion of privacy, keep in mind there are still ways, easy ways, of hiding your posts.
Even in Graph Search, Facebook posts shared with friends or friends of friends will only be seen by such, and you can check out our how-to on limiting past posts.
0 Comments