• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, July 2, 2009

Facebook is overhauling its privacy controls to make it easier for users to determine whom they share information with on the social network. The changes will allow people to decide whom to share content with, from only friends and family to "everyone" on a per-post basis. In between those extremes, they can select from a few other basic options, like targeting friends of friends or specific groups of friends.

The streamlining effort also includes consolidating privacy settings in a single page instead of spread across multiple locations and phasing out regional networks, which have become increasingly irrelevant with Facebook's global growth. Only half of users still actively use them.

"We want to make sure we don't create too many settings and too much complexity, to give people the power to share information as broadly or privately as they want over time," said Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, in a conference call Wednesday about the privacy revamp.

The move highlights competing pressures the company finds itself under from Twitter, on the one hand, to let users broadcast status updates as broadly as possible -- and on the other, to meet user demands for greater control over their profile information.

The privacy changes will roll out over the next three weeks through a series of tests Facebook will conduct to make sure users understand how the new settings work. An opt-in "Transition Tool" will help people choose how widely, and what, material from their profile they wish to share.

The tool will test three main privacy setting choices: "open," which might be for people like bloggers or photographers, "who really want to be open"; "limited," for sharing only with friends; and a "recommended" option that tries to strike a balance between openness and privacy. So it lets everyone see some general profile data, friends of friends see most of your profile, and only friends access more sensitive information.

The first week will include a test with 40,000 U.S. users, the second week will expand to 80,000 international users, and a rollout to all Facebook members will begin the following week.

Kelly noted that the privacy upgrade had nothing to do with changing user information the company provides to advertisers. "Facebook does not share personal information with advertisers except under the direction and control of a user," he stated in a post on the Facebook blog. "These new tools do not alter that policy or practice."

Facebook has had its share of privacy controversies from its Beacon program, telling people about their friends' purchases on e-commerce sites, to its terms of service debacle, in which it was forced to revise its TOS after appearing to claim perpetual ownership of content posted by users.