Social Media News: Major Change to Facebook Privacy Settings

by Angelo Fernandez | @angelobfs

BREAKING NEWS via MASHABLE

Facebook tweaked its privacy settings Thursday and will no longer allow users to completely hide from others searching for them on the site. In other words, with few exceptions, we're all now searchable on Facebook.

The company is officially retiring the “Who can look up your Timeline by name?” setting over the next few weeks, completing a process the social network started last December when it first announced it would slowly eliminate the feature.

For many users who were no longer using the “Who can look up your Timeline by name?” feature, Thursday's change should have no impact on how others can search and view their profile. Those users still utilizing the setting will see a message from Facebook on their homepage acknowledging the update.

With the setting completely eliminated, all Facebook users (minus minors and those who have blocked you) will be searchable through the site's Graph Search tool. That doesn't, however, mean that their content and page will be visible to those who come across it. Only posts that users have shared publicly will be available to those outside of their network.