Faced with a steady stream of criticism from users, privacy advocates, and more recently members of the government, Facebook has announced today that they’re simplifying how privacy settings work on the site. The WSJ is liveblogging Facebook’s conference call right now. CNET’s coverage is coming in faster, though, and offers more detail. Below is a quick summary of what Facebook is changing.

Zuckerberg says (as paraphrased by CNET), “There will be one simple control that applies to all content retroactively and applies to new products going forward. If you set your preference to friends-of-friends, for instance, that will continue to be the default going forward.” CNET says this will be communicated to users via a message on the home page, as well as via a new (or revised?) privacy guide.

On the Facebook Platform–where all the Facebook apps come from–you’ll be able to fully opt out (meaning block all apps) or make granular adjustments for each app.

In general, Facebook will be changing the number of privacy settings from 50 to 15.

This is all supposed to happen within a few days to a few weeks, according to Zuckerberg.

There’s now a more traditional Q&A with journalists in the room and on the call. Check out CNET’s live coverage for more information.

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Original post:
Sometime today, Facebook will release a new version of its privacy settings that supposedly will be easier to understand and use. Maybe that deserves a Yay! instead of a Beware!, but c’mon, this is Facebook we’re talking about. Once the new settings are announced, I’ll update the post with info.

“Facebook set to unveil ‘simplified’ privacy settings tomorrow” [USAToday]

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