Facebook Addressing Privacy Concerns

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Facebook plans to bolster privacy safeguards for its users, according to a story on www.Reuters.com, but the "opt-out" versus "opt-in" controversy remains unresolved.

In a blog post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined steps the social networking Website will take to shield its users, including enabling users to block third-party access to personal information without explicit permission from the users. The number of privacy settings required for a user to protect all personal information will be reduced to less than 15, compared to the more than 50 presently required. Additionally, less information will be accessible in the user directory.

Facebook users, however, will still specificallyy have to "opt-out" of default policies that render most personal data accessible to the public.  Privacy advocates continue to favor an "opt-in" system that would require users affirmatively to consent to sharing their personal information.

The Facebook revisions to the privacy settings are expected to occur over the next few weeks.