Upon viewing my Facebook account this afternoon I was alerted to an open letter from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Apparently it was posted at 02.33, so around 19.33 Cali time – the boy likes to work late; maybe he really is the next Bill Gates? It publicly reveals that the social networking giant will be stripping out its current ‘networks’ format and simplifying privacy settings. This should provide a greater security to how you share and who you share it with, which can be particularly useful for your pictures. Amid stories such as prospective interviewees being ‘researched’ by employers and then not providing due interviews of job offers thanks to that one night where you ran around with a roadcone on your head (or similar, y’know, use your imagination), and various other stories. Privacy’s become an important issue, so change is all for the good.

In its infancy Facebook’s networks – be that ‘London’, your community, school, region or otherwise – provided the option to share within friend groups and your associated network if you so wished. As the latter has grown vastly (there are now over some 350 million registered users), and with no distinct control method in joining some of these networks, the relevance of your target group has become more diluted and, when sharing personal information and indeed pictures, this had become a worry for some. Recognising this issue, the company will now strip out the current networks entirely, replacing with a simplified method to share content your Facebook friends only, friends of friends or everyone (the entirety of the internet, not just Facebook members).

Can only give that a thumbs up, though it’s worth reading Facebook’s extensive Privacy Policy as there’s a whole heap of cover to prevent the giant from pretty much ever landing in a lawsuit against them. A personal favourite is a bold M&S-style ‘Facebook is not just a website‘ statement…