Facebook announces new privacy features for apps

Facebook announced Wednesday that it will offer several new features that will help users retain greater control over the information they share online. 

The first new feature, called 'Anonymous Login,' allows users to sign into social apps without having to share any personal information. This will provide a certain degree of freedom for people to experiment with apps without having to create user names and passwords, as well as having to share any information listed on their Facebook profile.

"We are testing Anonymous Login with a few developers, and we plan to open it up to more developers in the coming months," said the company in a statement released online. 

As a corollary, Facebook also introduced 'line-by-line' control of information that gets shared with apps by clicking through a series of categories.

So, for example, if a user is willing to share information about their birthday but not their email address, they have that option. The controls also enable users to decide on a case-by-case basis what gets shared on their Facebook profile page. 

The changes were announced at Facebook's f8 developer conference in San Francisco, where more than 1,700 software developers gathered to hear speeches from Facebook's top brass, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

"Over the years, we've heard that people are worried about sharing so much information with apps, and they want more control over how apps use their data. We take this very seriously," Zuckerberg told the developers during his keynote address. 

"If people don't have the controls they need to feel comfortable using your apps, then that's bad for them and it's bad for you."