Facebook has bowed to user pressure and changed its default privacy setting for new users, so that their posts will only be visible to friends.
Prior to the change, the default setting was such that new user's content was open to anyone to view.
In a post on the social network's blog, Facebook said it was making the change because some of its 1.2 billion users had said they are more comfortable sharing with a smaller group, like friends.
"We recognize that it is much worse for someone to accidentally share with everyone when they actually meant to share just with friends, compared with the reverse," the statement said.
"So, going forward, when new people join Facebook, the default audience of their first post will be set to Friends."
The company said that when they post for the first time new users will be prompted to choose an audience for that post. However, if they don't make a choice, it will be set so that only friends can see it.
Facebook also said that over the coming weeks, it will roll out a new privacy check-up tool, which will assist people in seeing who they are posting to, what apps they are using and the privacy of important pieces of information on their profile, in a few steps.
The company said this would be of help to people already on Facebook, who are worried about sharing something by accident or sharing with the wrong audience.
Yesterday the company announced details of a new way to share and discover music, TV and movies.
The new feature, if turned on, will use a phone's microphone to identify what song is playing, or what show or movie is on TV, while the user is writing a status update.
