Facebook has announced that it will change its privacy controls, so that they appear right next to each posting. This would enable users to choose who sees individual status updates, photos and profile info — when they share or afterwards.

“With most of your controls now up front, your privacy settings page has been simplified,” explains Facebook.

Even though Facebook will never admit it, it seems quite clear that this change is in direct response to Google Plus. I recently asked my Facebook friends, “Are you using Google Plus?” Most said,”I’m on it, but don’t use it” but a few said they do use it and that they like the ability to separate friends into circles, getting more precise control not just over the information you produce, but also over the information you consume.

One of them said, “I use Google+ and I like it. I like that you can really customize the groups of people that you chat to about the subjects that you are in the mood to talk about. For example- I like to read what the “Big kids” have to say on social marketing and new ideas but I don’t want to wade through all of their tons of clutter and noise when I want to chat with my friends. So they have all been swept up into their own tidy circle for when I want information. Sort of like reading the newspaper. When I want to interact with friends, I open a different circle. It gives everything a very controllable flavor.”

With the risk of more and more people discovering that they like the better control that Google+ offers them, and its apparent respect for users’ privacy (something Facebook has been notoriously bad at), no wonder Facebook is making changes to give users exactly what Google Plus gives them- more control, while trying to establish that it *does* care about their need for privacy.