In an open letter by Mark Zuckerberg a new privacy announcement has been made by Facebook. Given that recently Facebook crossed yet another number centric milestone of 350 million users this is probably the most apt time to make this announcement.
Facebook has announced that it would be doing away with the regional networks. This means that if you chose the ‘India’ network while joining facebook then you would have to revise your setting soon. This is being done as a measure to create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.
Earlier as part of the India network anyone from India could source and see your profile and send you a message. The move to the simpler model will give users the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload.
So while twitter still remains very much an open network with little or no privacy settings by default. Facebook seems to be further tightening its screws on what can and not be seen.
From an India perspective only time will tell whether this is a good move or not. Honestly I don’t think Indians care too much about privacy just yet or else orkut wouldn’t have thrived the way it has in India. But Indians may care about regional content and people as internet penetration grows in India.
