Facebook to simplify privacy settings

Responding to complaints, the social networking site plans to make it easier for users to opt out of some, though not all, data-sharing features.

Facing growing protests over its handling of users' personal information, Facebook plans to make changes to the privacy settings available on the world's largest social networking website. But the steps, to be unveiled as early as next week, may not go as far as critics would like.

Lawmakers, regulators, privacy watchdogs and some Facebook users have unleashed a storm of criticism of the Internet company since it launched a program that shares user data with three third-party websites. A number of U.S. senators have called on Facebook to allow users to opt out of that program, which Facebook calls instant personalization.

The 6-year-old private company also has been assailed for technical glitches and loopholes that have exposed some personal data to third parties.

Facebook said Friday that it would simplify its privacy choices in response to complaints that the settings were confusing to navigate. It's expected that Facebook will offer users an easier way to dictate whether their information is shared with their friends only, with a broader group or with everyone.

But the company doesn't intend to end the instant personalization program, two people familiar with the plan said. They also said Facebook didn't plan to get explicit consent from its nearly 500 million users before adding new features.

Now, access Facebook on mobile devices for free

Popular social networking site Facebook can now be accessed through mobile devices for free or without any data charges in 45 countries, including India, on select mobile networks.

Facebook, which has over 400 million users worldwide, has tied up with Indian wireless operators -- Reliance Communications and Videocon -- to make the site available for cell phone users with zero data charges.
For this purpose, the entity has launched a new site ’0.facebook.com’ that includes all key features of Facebook but is optimised for speed.

“Today, we are launching ... ‘0.facebook.com’. “It, initially, is available through more than 50 mobile operators in 45 countries and territories with zero data charges,” a programme manager for Facebook Mobile, Sid Murlidhar, wrote in a blog on Wednesday.

In India, the new site would be available on the networks of Reliance and Videocon, the blog said.

Noting that the new site is fast and free, Murlidhar said it has key features of standard mobile site ‘m.facebook.com’ such as updating user status, send and reply to messages, among others.

”... people can access 0.facebook.com without any data charges. Using 0.facebook.com is completely free. People will only pay for data charges when they view photos or when they leave 0.facebook.com to browse other mobile sites,” he added.

According to the blog, over 100 million people are actively using Facebook from their mobile devices.

Other countries where the new site would be available include Brazil, Denmark, Greece, Finland, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Hungary and Indonesia.

Facebook shut its Lite site after just seven months

Facebook has shut down its Lite site aimed at users with slow or poor internet connections.

The stripped down version of the original ran for around seven months.

Facebook posted a note on its own fan page thanking those who used Lite, adding that it had "learned a lot from the test of a slimmed-down site".

"I think a lot of the Facebook experience was left out of Lite, especially the monetisable parts," said Ray Valdes of Gartner Research.

"The other part of this decision is probably because they have improved the performance sufficiently with the main part of Facebook and made things run better that they didn't need this back-up approach to cover a situation of low performance," Mr Valdes told BBC News.

The technology blog ReadWriteWeb.com had described the Lite site as a "Twitter-like experience" of the popular microblogging service because it offered a smaller number of features than the fully-fledged site.

The options on Facebook Lite were limited to letting users write on their wall, post photos and videos, view events and browse other people's profiles. There were no applications or special boxes.

"In some ways the Lite version was like using ad block on their own site - it stripped the site down to the very basics," said Mike Melanson of ReadWriteWeb.

The change was announced on Facebook's own profile page and offered few details as to why the service has been closed down.

"It would seem not enough people were using it but then there was not a lot of awareness about the product. Tears will not be shed over the loss of Facebook Lite," Nick O'Neil of AllFacebook.com told BBC News.

A number of commentators on the social media blog Mashable.com said that they used it because it was not blocked at their office while some said they thought it "would have been a nice support for low bandwidth nations".