8 September 2014
Facebook has responded to criticism about its privacy policy being confusing, by introducing a blue dinosaur to advise its users.
The dinosaur cartoon will guide users through a three-step privacy checkup designed to show them how to control who sees the information on their profile, and how it is shared. It began to experiment with the system in April, with over three-quarters of those who had seen it completing the privacy checkup, according to one of Facebook's privacy team talking with the Wall Street Journal.
The social networking site – which boasts over one billion users – has also made changes to settings to limit what information is shared by default.
The dinosaur appears on the windows that pop up when users go through the privacy check-up process. Facebook introduced it in the face of widespread criticism that its privacy policy was confusing – leaving people unsure about how much information they were sharing, and with whom.
At the moment, the dinosaur will pop up only when people are using Facebook on a laptop or desktop. The network says it is working on ways to introduce it to its mobile app.
