Facebook on Tuesday introduced a number of new security features, some of which take a few pages from the Google+ playbook.
"You have told us that 'who can see this?' could be clearer across Facebook, so we have made changes to make this more visual and straightforward," Chris Cox, Facebook's vice president of product, wrote in a blog post. "The main change is moving most of your controls from a settings page to being inline, right next to the posts, photos and tags they affect."
As a result, Facebook users will be able to change their privacy settings from their profile via a drop-down menu, which "lets you know who can see this part of your profile, and you can change it with one click."
Similarly, users will be able to select who sees a particular post on Facebook: Public, Friends, or Custom. "This dropdown menu will be expanding over time to include smaller groups of people you may want to share with, like co-workers, Friend Lists you've created, and Groups you're a member of. These will make it easy to quickly select exactly the audience you want for any post," Cox wrote.
If you change your mind after you post, you can also switch recipients. "If you accidentally posted something to the wrong group, or changed your mind, you can adjust it with the inline control at any time," Cox said.
This is reminiscent of the Google+ Circles approach, which lets you select which group of friends, or Circle, can see any given thing you post on the social network.
Facebook said the move produces a "much shorter and simpler Settings page."
Facebook also allows users to see how their profile displays to other users. Prior to today's update, that option was buried within the site's privacy settings, but now, Facebook has added a "View Profile As ..." button to the top of your profile.
One of the more annoying things about Facebook is the ability for other friends to tag countless photos of you without your permission. To prevent people from seeing these pics, you previously had to just block everyone from seeing tagged photos or videos of yourself. Going forward, you can choose a setting that will require you to approve or reject any photo or post in which you are tagged before it appears on your profile.
If you remove a tag, meanwhile, Facebook will now display an options menu that lets you: simply remove the tag; ask the person to remove the photo; or block the person who tagged you.
Facebook has also added the option to approve or reject a tag someone tries to add to your photos or posts. But the social-networking site will also let you tag someone who is not a friend or a Page that you have not "liked."
On the location front, Facebook will now let you check in somewhere from any location, not just the Places feature on a smartphone. "As a part of this, we are phasing out the mobile-only Places feature. Settings associated with it are also being phased out or removed," Cox said.
Facebook said the changes will start rolling out in the next few days. When they do, Facebook will display a prompt that will walk you through the various updates.
"Taken together, we hope these new tools make it easier to share with exactly who you want, and that the resulting experience is a lot clearer and a lot more fun," Cox concluded.
For more, see the slideshow above as well as PCMag's slideshow and a look at When Facebook Gets Creepy.
Also check out PCMag's analysis of privacy on Google+.