AVG Technologies has announced its first privacy app built on the Facebook® API: AVG CrowdControl. The app, which is available at facebook.com/avg, allows users to easily manage who sees their default posts for improved privacy without deleting personal contacts.
AVG CrowdControl is designed to make Facebook experiences safer by customising who can view a status, videos and photos posted on a personal timeline. AVG’s goal is that this will make privacy and online security a more front-of-mind issue for users. AVG CrowdControl also is integrated directly into the free AVG PrivacyFix™, launched last week.
Michael McKinnon, Security Advisor at AVG Technologies AU, said: “Most people have hundreds of friends on Facebook, but may not feel comfortable sharing their daily activity with such a large group, including old business colleagues, fellow students, or people who you can barely remember. This is why we designed AVG CrowdControl. We believe that people will share more and have a more fulfilling experience on social networks when they know they are sharing only with the group that’s right for them.”
AVG CrowdControl scans the user’s Facebook profile and organises their friends based on with whom they interact most. Clicking on any friend’s image marks them to be excluded from the custom list.
Once this personalised list has been created, the app takes users to a guided screen showing them how to change the default setting and opens a new tab for them to change it – a simple two-click process. As the app is integrated into users’ Facebook accounts, the list can be easily adjusted and kept up to date as new friends are added. When the user wants to share something more broadly, they can always select all Friends or Public as the audience for a specific post.
“As Facebook makes it easier for others to explore and find your information through tools like Graph Search, it’s more important than ever to manage the audience for your online life. AVG CrowdControl makes it quick and easy to get the defaults right,” McKinnon continued.
“We understand from young people that it’s a bad move to un-friend people, but still they wanted to easily limit who sees their stuff on Facebook. It’s great to have lots of online friends; but it’s even better to have control what they can see about you.”