You’ve seen the many inventions and actions that come about as a response to problems—in other words, solutions. If your child continuously steals cookies from the pantry, you put them on the top shelf; if everyone speeds down your neighborhood road, speed bumps are put in place; if people complain they can’t easily record television shows, welcome TIVO. After seven years of Facebook, a solution has finally come along as a response to one of the biggest problems Facebook users encounter—pictures.

There have been countless articles across the web discussing the problems Facebook pictures can cause users. In many cases, pictures can be embarrassing, and a picture of someone can go online without that persons consent. This becomes a huge problem when employers look to Facebook photos to get ideas about potential employees. According to a 2009 CareerBuilder.com survey, “45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job candidates [and] 35 percent of employers decided not to offer a job to a candidate based on the content uncovered on a social networking site.” While this is fair in most situations, it can be difficult to manage pictures that others post of you, even if you would never put a certain picture on the Internet. This is the thin line where it becomes unfair, and Facebook is finally doing something about it.

The Features That Will Save the Day – The New Facebook Precautions

  • Tagged Photos – You will no longer simply click “remove tag” when there is a picture you are not happy with posted on your account. When you want a picture untagged, a screen will prompt you to remove the tag, remove the tag and ask the person who posted the picture to take it down, or remove the tag and block the person who tagged you in the first place. This will help you manage not only which pictures appear on your account, but which pictures appear on the internet at all.
  • “View Profile As” Button Visibility—This option was always found under “settings,” but now has been moved to the top right hand corner of the profile page. This makes it easy to see what parts of your profile certain people or groups can see.
  • Photos You Will Tag—Not only will Facebook help protect you against the tags others may post on your wall, but there will now be an extra step to help protect you when you want to upload pictures. You will be prompted by a screen that will ask you to select who can see your post—friends, public, or customer. This feature will also work for statuses, giving you less to consider
  • Tagging Non-Friends—Facebook is all about making connections, so this new feature will allow you to make a connection (or vice versa) without going the extra step and becoming “friends.” If you have a photo or a status that you want to share with someone you don’t know very well yet, you can now do that. This will help users to get to know their acquaintances before making them a Facebook friend.

Whether Facebook was responding to users’ needs or responding to their latest competition, Google+, the visibility of old privacy features as well as new privacy features will help users feel more confident when walking into an interview or meeting clients. The long debate about using Facebook to look up potential employees and the constant confusion about connecting with co-workers on Facebook just might be over.