Facebook under fire over privacy settings

Popular social networking site Facebook is being criticised for planned changes to its privacy settings.

The Facebook officials plan to "simplify" the process so users only have to set them once, instead of for each individual feature.

The change will help people share more information with one another.

However, critics insist that the new settings can persuade members to share too many personal details - their date of birth for example.

"I'm a little bit worried about the settings recommended by Facebook because as far as I can see it's actually sharing quite a lot of information with quite a few people," the BBC quoted Tom Royal, from Computeractive magazine as saying.

"That's not something we'd advise people to do. We'd very much recommend people choose the 'limited' option instead.

"For example, just your date of birth can be a security question for lots of internet applications," he added.

 Meanwhile, Facebook execs say that the 'one size fits all' approach will make things more straightforward for users.

"The effect of more and more settings has made controlling privacy on Facebook too complicated," said site's chief privacy officer Chris Kelly.

"It's also phasing out regional networks like London and Manchester because Kelly says "they don't adequately reflect a world where people choose the audience they want to share with," he added.