Facebook privacy overhaul adds photo tagging approval, easier selective sharing

Today, Facebook announced a set of features that are sure to please its more privacy-conscious users. The social network has a bit of a notorious track record when it comes to privacy, a weakness that Google+ intentionally targeted when the rival service debuted in June.

Facebook's major update seeks to clear up the network's somewhat opaque settings when it comes to who sees what on your profile, adding "clearer, more consistent controls over how photos and posts get added to it, and who can see everything that lives there."

The update offers a host of new privacy protections, adding the long-awaited ability to reject a tagged photo before it goes online for all the world to see. Beyond that feature, Facebook has integrated selective sharing with lists directly into the status update field, and made updates editable, so if you decide that last diatribe about your boss was a little inappropriate, you can tweak your wording or change who can see it after the fact.

Facebook has also opted to integrate its geotagging check-in service, Places, into the site as a whole. Now, users can geotag anything, from a status update or wall post to a photo. 

Facebook's update is a pretty direct response to the Circles feature in Google+, which allows you to create and curate the groups that will receive your status updates. Facebook has a list feature that allows a degree of selective sharing, but the service wants to put privacy front and center with the new wave of tweaks. For the full list of updates, you can check out Facebook's blog and watch for the features to roll out over the coming days.

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