Facebook updates privacy settings

Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, revealed a simplified method for controlling privacy on the site at a press conference last night.

He insisted that privacy is still important to the company and that the social networking site does not sell personal data to advertisers but agreed that its settings have become too complicated.

The new controls will allow the site’s 450 million users to choose varying levels of privacy with a click of a button once they are implemented within the next few weeks.

There are four basic settings that allow users to share data with everyone, with friends of friends, their friends only or to specifically choose which information is shared with who such as photos or family information.

Mr Zuckerberg said: “People think that we don’t care about privacy, but that’s not true. There’s a balance. More and more people want to share information, and as long as they have good controls over that, I think that’s where the world is going.”

Earlier this month the social networking site increased its login security to protect users from hackers with a new tool that allows people to register devices that they use to sign in. If an unknown device is used the user is notified.