Social networking site Facebook is testing new privacy settings to replace existing ones that are currently required for different applications and content.

Users will be given a transition tool to help them move their settings across to a new page after which the old one will be destroyed.

Before this, confusion arose as Facebook had previously added privacy settings onto new features as they were introduced, when users tried to change settings, it created a muddle of affairs.

Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, said the new tool would help users maintain their old privacy settings and that Facebook would not be changing the information it shares with advertisers.

Currently, Facebook is testing six versions of the transition tool. They will garner feedback over the week before deciding how to go about it.

In the process, regional networks would be killed off because they have outgrown their usefulness as the network grew in size. The groups were far too large and unwieldy and did not allow people to specify accurately how they wish to share information with others.

In the future, you will either be able to limit access to specified lists of friends or family or you will be able to “share with more people and contribute to the general conversation going on in the world” by selecting ‘everyone’ in your privacy settings.

Facebook is caught in a Catch 22: either they cater to user’s desire for privacy at whatever level or they follow the desire to make money from the content and connections its users provide.

The more data available, the more page impressions Facebook gets and hence the more money it can extract from advertisers and marketers. On the other hand, the more privacy in place, the less money to be made.