Social networking site to make settings easier to manage, giving users the ability to review every publicly available picture

After repeated criticism that Facebook was making it hard to keep information private, they have begun to make a dramatic change to their privacy controls. You can now find and review any publicly available picture of yourself on the site.

The change is the biggest overhaul to its privacy settings in more than a year, and will begin appearing to the site’s 1 billion registered users over the next few weeks. The most visible change will be “privacy shortcuts” which will show up as a tiny lock at the right-hand side of the screen, at the top of the “news feed”, with a menu offering answers to questions such as “Who can see my stuff?” and “Who can contact me?”

Another tool will let people review every publicly available picture on Facebook that includes them, with suggestions on how to ask for them to be removed. “If you spot things you don’t want on Facebook, now it’s even easier to ask the people who posted them to remove them,” the company said in a blogpost.

Users will also get more precise control when they first use most apps (though not games apps) of how much it can do – such as reading their profile and friends list, but stopping it from posting into their public feed.

Facebook has come under repeated fire from privacy advocates because it kept shifting the boundaries of where privacy ended and publicly visible data began, and made it hard to understand how to change those back.

Critics also said that Facebook made the changes intentionally to expose more data about people publicly so that it could benefit from selling adverts to them.

Facebook’s move, which it said is unconnected with a poll that ended at the weekend over users’ right to vote on changes in the service, is in effect an acknowledgement that its privacy settings had been hard to understand and control. This includes “rogue apps” which would post unwanted content into users’ feeds to try to pull in their friends.

Being able to remove embarrassing or unpleasant photos has become increasingly important for users of the nine-year-old service, many of whom first started using it while they were still at university in the US – but who are now discovering that their digital history has followed them around.

For many younger users now, Facebook has become a record of who they are – but also a source of potential disruption in their first work interviews or careers. Getting rid, or hiding, photos that might show them in compromising or unpleasant situations may be a high priority.

The controversial cybercrime law has been suspended by the Philippines’ top court after numerous protests were made because it affects freedom of speech.

Earlier this month as covered by our blog post here, we discussed the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 which came into power.

It was made with good intent to help prevent online child pornography, identity theft, and spamming as all these issues raised “legitimate concerns” about criminal and abusive behaviour online. The act is also designed to prevent cybersex, defined as sexually explicit chat over the internet – often involving “cam girls” performing sexual acts in front of webcams for internet clients. But after recent protests a 120-day suspension to revise the law is now in place.

A total of 15 petitions were filed to the Supreme Court questioning the legality of the law. As of now there is a temporary restraining order preventing the act from being enforced. The maximum punishment for breaking the Cybercrime Law was punishable by up to 12 years in jail.

Even though there is a temporary suspension, protests to continue as the legislation could be used to target government critics and crack down on freedom of speech. Under the new act, a person found guilty of libellous comments online, including comments made on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter or blogs, could be fined or jailed. Government officials would also have had new powers to search and seize data from people’s online accounts.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch’s Asia director Brad Adams welcomed the move by the court, but urged it to “now go further by striking down this seriously flawed law”.

In recent news a new controversial law developed in the hopes of combating against cybercrime in the Philippines has come into effect. With it’s pass it has raised countless protests and concerns from citizens and media alike fearing censorship.

Named as the “Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012” it was signed last month on September 12 by the Filipino president. It’s intent is to try and stop cybersex, online child pornography, identity theft and spamming according to governmental officials. But the part which people are protesting against is the 12 year prison sentence which comes along side it.

“Questions have been raised about the constitutionality of certain provisions of the act. We recognise and respect efforts not only to raise these issues in court, but to propose amendments to the law in accordance with constitutional processes”

The act has been reported of have had at least eight large court cases raised already from large groups challenging its constitutionality and have been filed against the Philippines high court. Fears continued to rise about it being used by the government to crack down on critics freedom of speech. Under the new act, a person found guilt of libellous comments online, including comments made on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter or blogs, could be fined or jailed. But despite efforts made by protesters the act took place.

The turmoil that has been created because of this Act have lead activists to hacking into government websites, large social media campaigns being support across the globe with journalists holding rallies and citizens blacking out their social media avatars on Facebook and Twitter.

With the added power from the Government to search and seize any data from people’s online accounts, it has been questioned by numerous groups including a US-based Human Rights watch saying it is a clear violation of free speech.

“The cybercrime law needs to be repealed or replaced,” said the group’s Asia director, Brad Adams.
“It violates Filipinos’ rights to free expression and it is wholly incompatible with the Philippine government’s obligations under international law.”
The full Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 can be found here