Facebook Changes Privacy Settings: You Can No Longer Hide From Searches

Sounds ominous but this change was actually announced last year – it’s only really now that they’re completing the process.

This week Facebook changed its privacy settings which will no longer let users be unsearchable or completely hide on the social network.

The company will be officially be getting rid of the “Who can look up your Timeline by name?” setting over the next few weeks.

If you’re one of those who’s utilising the function you’ll see a message from Facebook acknowledging the new update:

The setting will be completely eliminated on the social media and all users will be searchable through Facebook’s Graph Search function. This means that everyone will be searchable except for underage people and those who have blocked you.

But this doesn’t mean that the contents of your page will actually be visible to everyone – only the posts that you’ve shared publicly.

In a post online, Michael Richter, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer, said that; “The search setting was removed last year for people who weren't using it” and that only a small percentage of users were availing of it. Though questions have been raised as to whether that this was because of the language of the setting.

“The setting also made Facebook's search feature feel broken at times” continued the CPO.

“For example, people told us that they found it confusing when they tried looking for someone who they knew personally and couldn't find them in search results, or when two people were in a Facebook Group and then couldn't find each other through search.”

“The best way to control what people can find about you is to choose the audience of the individual things you share” he said.

What do you make of the change?