Facebook on Tuesday announced the return of the “View As Public” feature, which is designed to allow users to see what their profile looks like to non-friends. The feature was intended to allow users to ensure they weren’t sharing information they didn’t want to share.
The feature, which had been disabled by the social network last fall, had contained a security flaw that has been used by hackers to steal access tokens, which are digital “keys” that allow users to stay logged in to the social network.
In a post on Twitter, Facebook said:
Today, we’re making it easier for people to manage their publicly visible information on Facebook with two updates: (1) we’re bringing back the “View As Public” feature and (2) we’re adding an “Edit Public Details” button directly to profiles.
Facebook is also adding an “Edit Public Details” button directly to members’ profiles, which is designed to make it easier to adjust what information about the user is publicly visible.
Today, we're making it easier for people to manage their publicly visible information on Facebook with two updates: (1) we’re bringing back the “View As Public” feature and (2) we’re adding an “Edit Public Details” button directly to profiles. pic.twitter.com/zI5bVwodjp
— Meta (@Meta) May 14, 2019
Facebook had removed all “View As” options in September 2018 after a vulnerability with the feature was discovered to have allowed hackers to steal Facebook access token for nearly 50 million accounts.
