Groups Tool, Download Your Information Feature, And New Dashboard Design Unveiled At Facebook Event

At a press conference Wednesday, Facebook unveiled several new features designed up help users better control their information.

One new tool, "Download Your Information," will make it possible for users to download all of the data they have on Facebook, from photos to wall posts, events to messages. Facebook will be rolling out the Download Your Information feature starting Wednesday and it will be accessible from the "Account Settings" tab.

Facebook is also introducing a new dashboard that is intended to provide a greater amount of visibility and control over the apps users use on Facebook. Facebook explained that the new feature is made to help users "view and control applications you have authorized."

Third, Facebook is introducing a revamped "groups" product that will help users share information with specific clusters of Facebook friends.

Zuckerberg explained how various options, such as lists and algorithms, do not work for clustering people's Facebook friends.

"Nobody wants to make lists," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the press conference in what seemed to be a dig at Twitter's "Twitter Lists" feature. He added that the results can be "catastrophic" when algorithms incorrectly identify the people users interact with most online.

Instead, Facebook has developed a "social solution," Zuckerberg said, which is to develop the "best set of tools for people to communicate with groups."

"It's a social problem, and thats why we solved it," Zuckerberg remarked.

The CEO unveiled what he calls a "groups product" to allow people to share information and updates with smaller groups of people. The improved groups will provide a shared space for people to communicate in, a group chat, and email lists.

Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post,

Today we're announcing a completely overhauled, brand new version of Groups. It's a simple way to stay up to date with small groups of your friends and to share things with only them in a private space. The default setting is Closed, which means only members see what's going on in a group.

From this space, you can quickly post photos, make plans and keep up with ongoing conversations. You can also group chat with members who are online right now. You can even use each group as an email list to quickly share things when you're not on Facebook. The net effect is your whole experience is organized around spaces of the people you care most about.

Comments

[kinoptikation]

05:37 PM on 10/06/2010

will Diaspora be any different?

[dnb310]

05:34 PM on 10/06/2010

The default setting is "chump".
I got out of that scam and I'm not going back. Sorry huffpo, I don't need your stinkin' badges.

[Rick Eriksen]

05:33 PM on 10/06/2010

Can someone please get this face off of my computer...on the plus side, it is making my dog feel better about himself...

[StansDad]

05:20 PM on 10/06/2010

Our new policy, sell all the information you have to the highest bidder. That way you know that whoever ends up with all of your info is a respectable solicitor

[ScreenName05]

05:19 PM on 10/06/2010

Simple solution - delete your facebook account.

[inde4reality]

05:18 PM on 10/06/2010

"Nobody wants to make lists," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said"

Actually yes we all do, but most of the easy to create list options have been removed because the App users were using them to their advantage when sending gifts. Since Facebook does not seem to want to be App friendly anymore(guessing because of bandwidth) they are doing their sweetest impression of "for your privacy protection" to removed the "tools" to m ake it easier that have been there since day one

[SaquaroSue]

05:15 PM on 10/06/2010

I know some folks who could definitely use a "submit breathalyzer here before posting to avoid oversharing" function.

[Joe Viglione]

05:14 PM on 10/06/2010

Is this his attempt to deflect attention from the movie THE SOCIAL NETWORK

[jmichaelmunger]

05:12 PM on 10/06/2010

Its weird protecting the privacy of people willing to disclose where they are, their fears, their kids' names, their "regularity," and their views on a daily basis.

Its ironic that we have to protect our privacy on social networking sites.

[Riamac]

05:43 PM on 10/06/2010

It's not weird at all. People want to socialize online with the people they choose and be able to manage who has access to what information. For instance, someone might want to share something with their friends but not their Grandmother, or vice versa. Or I might be willing to share my innermost feelings with everyone on my friends list, but disable "Places" because I'm being stalked by an ex-boyfriend.

[jmichaelmunger]

06:40 PM on 10/06/2010

"How can we expect another to keep our secret if we cannot keep it ourselves." -- Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

The moment something is posted online, it ceases to be a secret.

We can communicate with family and friends without telling the world. Relying on FB privacy is like relying on an airbag: it'll probably work, but you don't want it to have to.

[BlackBuddha]

05:12 PM on 10/06/2010

Anyone heard the one about "it" having a 5% U.S. Intel Agency ownership?

[ReichWingKaput]

05:12 PM on 10/06/2010

You can download.
But you can't edit or delete.
Nice.

[ReichWingKaput]

05:10 PM on 10/06/2010

Great.
You (and anyone else who can hack your account) can
"download all of the data they have on Facebook,
from photos to wall posts, events to messages."

No mention of any ability to delete, edit or modify that data.
Facebook has it and will have it....
forever.

Can you spell
"Chumps"?

Enjoy the last vestiges of you privacy.

[Kay-B]

05:29 PM on 10/06/2010

If you're paranoid, delete your Facebook account. problem solved.

[jwatso7]

05:09 PM on 10/06/2010

If it's like everything else, it will default to be turned off, and you'll have to jump through a gazillion hoops to turn these new privacy settings on. I still have a FB account, but I think about dropping it every day.

[Phoebe917]

05:15 PM on 10/06/2010

i rarely use mine. i've had people "from my past", most undesirable, track me down. have no idea how they found me, as i have a different last name. but i *do* have a very distinct first name. (not Phoebe!)

[cookmeyer1970]

05:38 PM on 10/06/2010

I thought about it every day as well. Finally, I took a week off to see if I could live without it. In that time, I tracked down all the e-mails from the people I *really* want to be friends with, and then I deleted it for good. It felt weird at first, but about a month later, I can honestly say I am not missing it, and I feel liberated. There's even a group on facebook that has link you can go to to delete your account (as opposed to deactivating it which fb will try to get you to do instead, but your info will still be on there).

I realize like anything, there are good aspects to it as well as the bad, but the privacy concerns are just too numerous, not to mention the time I wasted there not really connecting with the people closest to me.

[BasketWeaver]

05:08 PM on 10/06/2010

Myspace users can download the names and whereabouts of their illegitimate children.

[weslenforever]

05:02 PM on 10/06/2010

Facebook is so full of bugs and nonsense they can't even keep what they already have working properly. I don't think they need any new buggy apps to cause new problems. When something does go wrong they don't even have a way to contact them about it. AND if they "temporarily suspend" your account, the only way they offer to "verify" your account is through identifying "friends" from pictures. Said "friends" you seldom have contact with except when sending a gift for a game you mutually play and who you have never ever seen in person so can't identify from a photo.
To my mind this makes Facebook another useless app.

[Dylan Henrich]

05:10 PM on 10/06/2010

'Buggy apps' are not Facebook's problem. They're the problem of the app developers.

Also, I've had my account temporarily suspended for security reasons. I didn't have to play a game of memory. I had to verify my identity by having them send a text message to the cell phone on record for the account.

Your picture description is an incredibly bad idea, simply because it's not incredibly difficult to figure out who those people are. It's a very vulnerable security measure, which makes me doubt if you're remembering things correctly.