Facebook tweaks privacy options

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Internet social networking site Facebook says it has tweaked its newly issued privacy options for its 350 million users' friends lists.

PC magazine said the additional changes posted Thursday were prompted by user complaints about the easy availability of friends lists. Facebook had instituted an option box for users to check so their friends would not see everyone else on their friends list. However, that privacy setting was defeated by virtue of the fact Facebook considers that information "publicly available," which means people who were not logged in could still see them.

"Now when you uncheck the 'Show my friends on my profile' option in the

friends box on your profile, your friend list won't appear on your profile regardless of whether people are viewing it while logged into Facebook or logged out," Facebook said in a blog post. "This information is still publicly available, however, and can be accessed by applications."

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said Friday he has made much of the content on his own page open.

"For those wondering, I set most of my content to be open so people could see it," he wrote. "I set some of my content to be more private, but I didn't see a need to limit visibility of pics with my friends, family or my teddy bear."

PC World reported a Facebook senior privacy manager said as the service evolves, more privacy issues will arise and be addressed. Ultimately, he said, the California company understands users must feel Facebook protects their privacy if they are going to be comfortable posting personal information.

"We're not going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs," he said.