Facebook (FB) is planning another round of privacy changes with a focus on making it easier to control what’s shared and what’s not, according to The New York Times. Sam Lessin, Facebook’s director of product told the publication that a new always-visible button called “Privacy Shortcuts” will be added that will let users quickly change settings for what they share. Users will also finally be able to block other users they don’t want to have any interaction with.
Where the changes becomes a cause for concern is the removal of “the ability for people to hide themselves on Facebook’s search.” Lessin says Facebook is retiring the feature because only “a single-digit percentage of users” hid themselves from search. As Nick Bilton from the NYT astutely notes, Lessin’s figure could still mean the change might affect tens of millions of users, considering Facebook has over 1 billion active monthly users.
