Facebook as a platform has taken a strong emphasis on Group usage. With this increased attention, Facebook has also begun simplifying the process of creating a group’s privacy settings to ensure users fully understand their options.
Before this update, Facebook offered three privacy settings for group each with its own level of public visibility:
From this chart alone, it is difficult to determine what is public and private in each group option. To address this concern, Facebook is only allowing 2 group options moving forward: ‘Public’ and ‘Private.’
Explained by Facebook themselves:
We’re making this change because we’ve heard from people that they want more clarity about the privacy settings for their groups. Having two privacy settings – public and private – will help make it clearer about who can find the group and see the members and posts that are part of it. We’ve also heard that most people prefer to use the terms “public” and “private” to describe the privacy settings of groups they belong to.
“With two clear options, this new privacy model is much more intuitive. Public groups allow anyone to see who’s in the group and everything that’s shared there. With private groups, only members can see who else is in the group and what they’ve posted.”
As seen by the graphic above, there are still three options for groups, however the language is now limited to versions of “public” and “private.”
Existing Facebook groups will be adapted to meet the new guidelines as follows:
“By default, any group that was formerly “secret” will now be “private” and “hidden.” A group that was formerly “closed” will now be “private” and “visible.” Groups that are “public” will remain “public” and “visible.”
How do you feel about the new update? Is it helpful? Let us know!