Facebook backs off in privacy spat

Network agrees to lock down friend lists.

Facebook has eased off on new privacy settings which left users friend lists open for viewing.

The company said in a blog posting that it would be changing the settings to allow users to hide some of the friend list data, preventing other Facebook users and outside visitors from viewing friend lists.

"Now when you uncheck the 'show my friends on my profile' option in the friends box on your profile, your friend list won't appear on your profile regardless of whether people are viewing it while logged into Facebook or logged out," the company explained.

"This information is still publicly available, however, and can be accessed by applications."

User outcry over the new settings began shortly after the changes were initially rolled out by the social networking giant.

While the company hoped that the changes would allow users to have a clearer understanding over their privacy settings and better manage their information, critics argued that the new settings in fact made more user information available to the general public.

The privacy spat is far from the first such issue which has befallen the social networking giant in its quest to generate revenues. In 2007 the company received a scathing response for its proposed 'Beacon' advertising platform, since then the company has also come under fire for the use of polling ads.