Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced what changes will be made to the social networking giant, which will come into effect today.

The site includes a complete redesign the privacy settings page which will be simplified, while a new control will make it easier to share content with friends or friends of friends, with just one click.

While new settings are being applied in an easy-to-understand grid, the site is also aiming to maintain its granular settings to allow users to customise their level of sharing.

These settings all now appear on a single page.

The amount of information visible to everyone has also been reduced, with friends and connections now being restricted to whoever the users wants, although profile pictures, names, networks and genders will always be open to allow other users to recognise who they are searching for.

Facebook platform applications and website can also be turned off, which means that users information will not be shared with applications, while, by un-checking the ‘enable instant personalization’ box, users will be able to ensure that their information is not shared with current or future personalisation applications.

The new presets have been created to ensure that Facebook has a better understanding of the overall privacy level a user is comfortable with and allow it to apply the right settings to each user while rolling out new products.

Finally, quashing rumours to the contrary, Facebook has said that it will not be changing its advertising programmes to make more money. Advertisers may target ads to people according to certain demographics, but they will receive only anonymous data reports.

Zuckerberg explained in his blog the need for the changes by saying; “When we started Facebook, we built it around a few simple ideas. People want to share and stay connected with their friends and the people around them. When you have control over what you share, you want to share more. When you share more, the world becomes more open and connected.”

The key words for the changes are clearly “privacy” and “easier,” and the site will now have to see if these new privacy settings quell the rising discontent its users have felt in recent months to the direction that Facebook was heading.