On Tuesday, Facebook announced several new features to help users more easily control their privacy settings. Most notably, a new "tag approval" system lets users reject or approve any photo in which they are ID'd before it appears on their profile page or in the newsfeed. Previously, users could tag friends in photos without their consent, forcing those friends to hastily "untag" unflattering or racy pictures. Given the growing success of Google+ — the search giant's fledging social network, which has been praised for its easy-to-use privacy controls — some are wondering if Facebook is trying to play catch-up. Is Mark Zuckerberg aping Google?
Nope. Facebook came up with this on its own: Our new photo-tagging controls are not a reaction to Google+, says Meredith Chin, Facebook's manager of product communications, as quoted by CNET. While I "really wish we could move that fast," we've been developing these new features for "the last several months" — and Google+ is just two months old.
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