Facebook Tweaks Privacy: You Can No Longer Hide From Search

Facebook tweaked its privacy settings Thursday and will no longer allow users to completely hide from others searching for them on the site. In other words, with few exceptions, we're all now searchable on Facebook.
The company is officially retiring the “Who can look up your Timeline by name?” setting over the next few weeks, completing a process the social network started last December when it first announced it would slowly eliminate the feature.

For many users who were no longer using the “Who can look up your Timeline by name?” feature, Thursday's change should have no impact on how others can search and view their profile. Those users still utilizing the setting will see a message from Facebook on their homepage acknowledging the update.
With the setting completely eliminated, all Facebook users (minus minors and those who have blocked you) will be searchable through the site's Graph Search tool. That doesn't, however, mean that their content and page will be visible to those who come across it. Only posts that users have shared publicly will be available to those outside of their network.
"

The best way to control what people can find about you is to choose the audience of the individual things you share

The best way to control what people can find about you is to choose the audience of the individual things you share," explained Facebook on the company's blog. When users post something to their timeline, they can choose who will be able to see it: Friends, Public, Only Me, and a Custom setting where users can exclude individuals or groups. Users who are sharing something publicly will be met with a pop up that reminds them they are sharing with everybody.

Users can also go to their activity log in settings to delete or hide posts, or change who can see previously shared posts on their Timeline.
To do this, just go to Settings in the upper right hand corner of the home screen, then click "Privacy Settings" and select "Review all posts and things you're tagged in" link.

What are your thoughts on Facebook's privacy settings update? Is it simple enough for you to restrict your content on the social network? Let us know in the comments.