Facebook has made changes to its privacy control settings.

Social networking website Facebook has launched new privacy settings, giving users greater control over the display of their personal information.

Facebook hopes the new privacy settings will simplify the process of sharing personal information online for its 350 million users.

Some of the new settings include “a simpler privacy settings page and a tool to control the audience for each and every post you create”.

The changes mean that the information of Facebook will shared with a wider internet audience, as search engines such as Google will increasingly be able to integrate content into search results.

From today (10 December), users logging into Facebook we receive a message highlighting the new settings and will be given the opportunity to review and update their existing preferences.

Users will be encouraged to restrict access of personal data, such as photos, videos and phone numbers. Facebook will also recommend how widely available certain uploads and postings should be.

Facebook has stated on its blog that this is an ongoing process and is keen to receive feedback on the changes.