Facebook Ratchets Up Privacy Controls; Confirms Chat

Facebook held a press event on Tuesday, announcing both an update to their privacy controls as well as confirming their upcoming chat feature, to be called Facebook Chat.

The privacy features will build on the Friend Lists feature that Facebook introduced in December. Users will be able to set specific privacy controls for specific friends or groups of friends. This means that (assuming you are careful enough), no longer need you be concerned that future employers will be scanning your party photos to see just how much liquor you can hold.

Information you add to Facebook can be shared - or not - based on the classifications:

• Everyone on Facebook
• Friends of Friends
• All Friends
• Some Friends
• Only Me

You can also share the information with certain of your networks.

Meanwhile, the chat feature, rumored for some time and called Facebook Chat, was demoed by product manager Peter Deng.

"When you log in to the site there is a Chat [UI] at the bottom of the browser ... it's unobtrusive and there when you need it," he said.

You could think of it as similar to Google Talk, which is overlays on top of Gmail. However, Facebook Chat is proprietary, and won't have any API access, at least initially. Future Jabber integration is a possibility, but not guaranteed.

Facebook Chat should roll out in two weeks; the new privacy settings should be live Wednesday morning.