NEW YORK — More Facebook users can expect to see a blue cartoon dinosaur popping up in their feeds, reminding them to check their privacy settings.
No stranger to privacy fiascos, Facebook had already made the tool available to users who were posting public updates. The feature is designed to remind people how widely they share posts, what apps they use and other privacy issues.
Besides providing all of its 1.3 billion users with a privacy check-up, Facebook also will set default controls on new users’ posts to “friends.” Previously, the posts were programmed so they could be seen by anyone on the Internet, unless the user manually changed the control.
On Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the effort to help guard users’ privacy is a “symbolic shift,” Zuckerberg said, for a decade-old company that has irritated its users with design changes that appeared aimed at sharing information more widely.
“We think this is taking our responsibility seriously to make sure people have control over who they are sharing with,” Zuckerberg told Facebook shareholders during the Menlo Park, Calif., company’s annual meeting.