The changes give users much better control of who sees your information, including being able to restrict viewing to an individual if you desire.
Settings include "only friends" and "friends of friends." A "customize" option allows users to show or hide a post from specific individuals or user-created lists. The options are available by clicking on a new "lock" icon that appears next to the "share" button when a Facebook user updates their status. Any setting may be chosen as a default and the default option may be changed as desired. Especially important is the new "everyone" setting that determines whether a Facebook post will be seen on other services, such as in Google search results. Here is a description of the "Everyone" setting:
"Information set to 'everyone' is publicly available information, may be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), is subject to indexing by third party search engines, may be associated with you outside of Facebook (such as when you visit other sites on the internet), and may be imported and exported by us and others without privacy limitations.
The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to 'everyone.' You can review and change the default settings in your privacy settings. If you delete 'everyone' content that you posted on Facebook, we will remove it from your Facebook profile, but have no control over its use outside of Facebook."
Read this post from Facebook to learn more.
