The Facebook Blog

Facebook is designed to give you control over the information you share, and today we're making available some of our most recent privacy controls to applications on Facebook and websites and services using Facebook Connect.

Last December, we launched a control that many of you had requested for some time—the ability to customize privacy for each piece of content you share on Facebook.com through the Publisher, including status updates, links, photos and videos. Today, we are responding to your continued feedback by extending that same level of... control to content shared through applications.

There are now granular privacy options that enable you to personalize the audience for each piece of content you share through applications. Simply select the group of people you want to share with from the drop-down menu near the lock icon on the Publisher on your home page or profile, or the prompts that appear when you share from applications or Facebook Connect websites.

For example, maybe you don't want all of your friends to see the humorous greeting card you just posted from an application. Now you can set that post to be viewable only by certain friends.


Alternatively, there are some posts you may want to share with the broadest audience possible, such as information on an important organization you're supporting in the Causes application.


These new controls give you the power to determine who sees the content you post to Facebook through any third-party application, whether it is on Facebook.com, your desktop, mobile phone, or from a Facebook Connect website or service. Seesmic, a desktop application from which you can view and update your News Feed, will soon offer extended privacy options so you can specify audiences for each update you make from the application, such as uploaded photos and status updates.

Applications on Facebook.com and external websites and services using Facebook Connect implementations have always respected your privacy based on what you've set in the "Posts by Me" setting on your Privacy Settings page. This setting will continue to be your default setting for all posts, and you can change it at any time.

You may also start to see additional prompts in applications asking if you'd like to set privacy for certain pieces of content that differ from your default setting. Whether you choose to keep your default setting on everything you share or change the audience for different pieces of content, the choice is yours.

We look forward to continuing to provide tools that give you more control over your information. Please keep your comments and suggestions coming.


Ray, an engineer on the Facebook Platform team, is sharing a Someecard that is not safe for mom.