"In theory, this is good. But Facebook has had situations in the past where they've announced things that sound good in theory, but in practice have not worked out," said Ari Schwartz, deputy director at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "We have to see how the controls actually work and test them out."

Friends of Friends

Facebook added a "Friends of Friends" privacy option that allows users to share information with more people to whom they are connected through their friends.

"We thought this provided a much-needed option for people whose strongest social connections are not through the networks they've joined, but through the friends they've added," Naomi Gleit, a product manager at Facebook, wrote on the company's blog.

The second new option is the ability to share and restrict information based on specific friends or friend lists. "Now, in addition to messaging and event and group invitations, friend lists can help you communicate by choosing what information you share with certain groups of people."

For example, you can upload your family vacation photo album and share it only with your mom and dad, or only your "Family" friend list. Alternatively, you can restrict loved ones from seeing a photo album that may not be so family-friendly by excluding your "Family" friend list.

Facebook has also redesigned its privacy section to make it simpler and easier to use. "We're always building more ways for you to control your information on Facebook, so stay tuned for more in the future," Gleit promised.

Facebook's Conundrum

Schwartz said Facebook is facing a conundrum. The social-networking site wants to make more information open. But at the same time, Facebook wants to give users more control. Balancing those "wants" seems to be the key to appeasing privacy advocates.

"People need to have an understanding of what happens to their information before they make choices on the site, and then they need to have access to the controls to do it," Schwartz said. "But the hard part is getting that user interface right so the user has both the understanding and the controls at the same time."

When Facebook comes out with a new feature, Schwartz said, privacy is often still the first thing users ask about. Facebook still has a lot of work to do to make people feel that their privacy will be protected down the road, he added.

"Facebook users have high expectations of the site. That certainly makes a difference in terms of the scrutiny that's put to them. A lot of the things Facebook has done are very transparent compared to what a lot of other people in the industry are doing," Schwartz said. "The fact that people get upset with Facebook shows that people are concerned about general practices that are happening on the Web -- when they know about them."