Facebook is ending a feature that allowed users to hide from the billion-plus members of the social network.<\/p>\n
The feature, akin to Harry Potter\u2019s invisibility cloak, will be removed, meaning that someone looking for another Facebook user can more easily find that person.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe setting was created when Facebook was a simple directory of profiles and it was very limited,\u201d said Facebook\u2019s chief privacy officer, Michael Richter.<\/p>\n
The setting made Facebook search \u201cfeel broken at times,\u201d Richter added in a company blog Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, people told us that they found it confusing when they tried looking for someone who they knew personally and couldn\u2019t find them in search results, or when two people were in a Facebook Group and then couldn\u2019t find each other through search.\u201d<\/p>\n
Facebook announced last year it was ending this feature for new users, but allowed a transition for a \u201csmall percentage\u201d of users who had that feature enabled.<\/p>\n
Richter said the change should not have an impact on overall privacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you\u2019ve been using the setting or not, the best way to control what people can find about you on Facebook is to choose who can see the individual things you share,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Facebook, which has been under scrutiny by privacy advocates, recently revamped its search functions to include so-called \u201cgraph search\u201d that allows users to search through a wide range of posts on the world\u2019s biggest social network.<\/p>\n
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