Kicking Privacy Up a Notch

Can the internet keep a secret? Starting today, Facebook boosts security to seal your lips a little bit tighter.

The newest features will protect your reputation—and sanity—by putting an end to frantically checking what’s been tagged to your name. Before, the site did offer multiple privacy options. But if you only wanted some of your coworkers to see the snapshots from last night, it wasn’t possible. It was either all of your network or nothing. If you were picky, then maybe you settled on yourself as the only viewer.

Customize your settings further than before! For your profile, you can still adjust each section: your basic info, status updates, wall and more. One of the new features includes granting “Friends of Friends” (the friends of your friends on Facebook) access to parts of your profile, without them being in your networks or your personal friend.

Also you may “Edit Custom Settings” by selecting exactly who can view your information. But what really differs is the last option, to add the names of specific friends who should not have access to that part of your page. This is similar to—but not as drastic as—the blocking option that keeps users from seeing you at all, even in searches. So if you don’t want Lucy in human resources to see your videos and notes, but everything else is fair game, you can make it happen.

This update will help fussy users, but will all Facebook followers adjust these new alternatives, or just ignore the post sitting securely atop the News Feed, announcing the changes? [New York Times]