14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook always wants you to share more. The more you share the better it becomes. On the one hand, it's more useful and more fun for you and your friends since there's more to do and more to see.
Facebook can also better help you find content and pages you may like. At the same time, it can also sell more targeted ads.
That said, Facebook's constant pushing has people pushing back so the site has to walk a fine line. Facebook latest addition, the Shared Activity plugin is an attempt to balance things out.
"The plugin provides a simple solution for implementing the user controls required when working with Open Graph built-in actions," Facebook explains.
"From the plugin on sites such as Airbnb, people can set the default Facebook audience for activity shared from your app, or manage the settings for stories previously published to Facebook, including selecting an audience or removing it altogether," it says.
The Shared Activity plugin enables app developers and websites to integrate privacy controls into the apps or sites.
What this means is that users will be able to see what they are sharing and with whom from inside the app as well as change the default settings if they want.
This makes it easier for them to stay in control which in turn makes them more likely to trust the app and Facebook itself. The alternative is to have them go to the Facebook settings page and set their privacy and sharing preferences there, which few people do.
"The Shared Activity plugin lists a person's activities published from your app to Facebook including Open Graph activities, Like button stories, and comment plugin activities," Facebook's Andrew Chen wrote.
"For example, when an individual uses a music app, she could modify the privacy settings, through the plugin, for specific song listening activities, without needing to go back to Facebook to control what's shown," he said.