Facebook launches dinosaur advisor worldwide to bring users out of the privacy stone-age
Social network Facebook has launched a blue privacy-advising dinosaur worldwide to teach users how they can change who sees their posts, after a successful trial period with selected users.
The privacy dinosaur will appear on Facebook accounts around the world
The cartoon dinosaur, nicknamed the ‘Zuckersaurus’, will appear when users access the site’s privacy settings from which it will give them a walkthrough on how to control profile information.
Facebook rolled-out the feature to its 1.3bn worldwide users this week after trialing the mascot with sample accounts since April.
Paddy Underwood, a manager of Facebook’s privacy team, told the Wall Street Journal that three quarters of those who seen the dinosaur completed the privacy settings form.
Underwood added that the dinosaur was created to steer users clear of social media blunders which could result in them leaving the site – such as publicly posting private messages.
The ‘Zuckersaurus’ is only accessible on desktop and laptop computers – with the firm adding that it is currently working on the smartphone advisor.
Of late, Facebook has been trying to tighten its privacy settings after the site was criticised for a lack of transparency on who can access users' content.
Nonetheless, it is unclear just how much demand there is for clearer privacy settings on the site. In January, research by LoveMyVouchers.co.uk claimed that 58 per cent of Facebook users do not care about privacy.