Meet the Facebook dinosaur: the new way to remind users about privacy settings
Users on Facebook could be set to see a new figure on its pages, as the brand looks lo warn people when they are making public posts.
In a less-annoying manner than the Paperclip, the little blue dinosaur will pop up when users have not changed their privacy, saying ‘You haven't changed who can see your posts lately, so we just wanted to make sure you're sharing this post with the right audience. (Your current setting is Public, though you can change this whenever you post.)’
Facebook has said that the dinosaur and pop-ups are currently just an experiment, with the dinosaur giving users the opinion to share their post with everyone, just their friends, or to see more options.
Patrick Salyer, CEO of Gigya, suggests that this is a ‘vital step’ in reassuring the millions of consumers that use the site.
“To this day, privacy on Facebook has been a widely debated issue, and the social network has been admonished in the past for its missteps. This week's announcement is a highly positive step in the direction of transparency and is ultimately a win for Facebook, its users and brands that leverage Facebook as a marketing tool. Facebook depends on consumer trust and must continue making its policies and functionality clear with regard to sharing data and timeline updates,” he said.
Facebook’s privacy settings could be set to undergo further changes if tests give positive feedback, the company has said.