Facebook announced two new safety features for its mobile platforms today intended to make interacting with the platform easier and more secure. Facebook is bringing its “social reporting” feature to mobile browsers as well as mobile password reset. As 250 million users interact with Facebook through mobile devices, look for more features that started on the Web to make their way to smartphones and tablets.
Social reporting was rolled out by Facebook in March. It is designed to let users alert members of the community and Facebook itself when they see content they do not like. No, that does not mean a “Dislike” button, but rather a way for Facebook to let its users police the ecosystem.
If there is a picture of you posted by one of your friends, you can report it through social reporting. Facebook says that 70% of all reported pictures are taken down by the owner. Mobile social reporting is first coming to the mobile browser version of Facebook but should soon be available for all platforms, such as iOS and Android.
Facebook is also testing mobile password reset for times when you forget your login credentials or are for some reason locked out of your account. Facebook will allow users to choose the email address to send profile recovery links. It also says that it is working on additional ways to confirm user identity. Facebook says that it will roll this feature out to users slowly to gauge the response using the new feature.
Facebook has been releasing safety and security tools at an active rate this year. In April the company launched Two Factor Authentication and improvements to the use of HTTPS (HTTP + SSL). It also created a new “family center” which was updated in April. Social reporting was also expanded to the rest of the site.
In May, Facebook partnered with security firm Web Of Trust to help users protect themselves against “clickjacking” and “lifejacking” schemes.
