System design: Facebook Privacy

Facebook · Case Study · 2022 – 2024

When 24% of people on Facebook were accidentally sharing with the wrong audience, we knew privacy settings needed more than a redesign — they needed a rethinking

Facebook's privacy controls had grown organically over a decade. Posts, stories, Marketplace, and Dating each presented settings in different styles and formats. 10% of users reported being unable to find the setting they wanted to change within the last 7 days. The inconsistency wasn't just confusing — it was eroding trust.

As design lead for Facebook Privacy, I was tasked with a question that was deceptively simple: how do you give billions of people clear, consistent control over their data across every surface, every device, and every regulatory jurisdiction, without overwhelming them?

Role & Scope

Understanding the Problem

We identified five core privacy problems that cut across every surface of Facebook

Through research synthesis and cross-functional workshops with Privacy, Integrity, and Privacy Central teams, we distilled the landscape into five "people problems": recurring pain points that prevented users from feeling in control. These became the foundation for every design decision that followed.

Strategic Approach

Not every privacy problem needs the same solution

Privacy isn't a single feature — it's a spectrum. Some problems require proactive system defaults. Others need better in-context controls. And some demand entirely new frameworks. I mapped our solutions across this spectrum to ensure we were addressing the right problems with the right level of intervention.

Deep Dive: Unified Settings Framework

A single, modular framework for 93% of all Facebook Settings impressions

The problem
Privacy settings were scattered across dozens of surfaces, each with its own UI patterns, component libraries, and interaction models. Engineers spent an average of 2.5 days building each new setting. Regulatory changes — which required updates across every surface simultaneously — took weeks to roll out.

The approach
Rather than fixing settings surface by surface, I proposed a fundamental shift: a unified framework with a new information architecture, modular Bloks components, and consistent interaction patterns that could scale across the entire platform

Deep Dive — Audience Selector

24% of users had unwanted viewers see their posts. This was the most urgent problem to solve.

The problem
Audience selection suffered from inconsistent UI patterns across surfaces, low entry-point discoverability, full-screen intrusive modals, and contradictory audience labels. Users didn't just struggle with settings — they were inadvertently exposing content to unintended audiences.

The approach
I designed a standardized Audience Privacy Selector — a unified component that works consistently across posts, stories, Reels, and Marketplace. I also created the Audience Selector Guideline to ensure scalability across all surfaces and future product teams.

Privacy Controls Simplification

Restructuring settings around the way people actually think

Using humanistic language, we grouped settings around core jobs — aligned with users' mental models rather than internal product taxonomies. People could finally find the settings they needed quickly and in the places they expected.