Facebook users want the choice to turn Timeline on or off

Facebook's proposal to make past posts on people's accounts easier for the user and their friends and colleagues to see, has sparked concerns

While the new feature Timeline has been broadly welcomed and does not breach privacy laws, not everyone is so happy to have their past so easily flagged up for new friends and/or colleagues to see.

We spoke to James Firth, chief executive of privacy company Open Digital Policy, and he pointed out the potential pitfalls of the new feature, which he expands on in his blog.

"The Timeline feature brings your past to the present. We don't all want to have our entire digital past laid out before our 'friends' of the present.

"Perhaps in the past, some people wrote some things that will embarrass them. I don't like the fact that all the old pictures of my ex are flaunted on my timeline for my new partner to see, not to mention the public posts of affection," he said.

The new feature on the social networking site takes all the information a person has ever posted and displays this in chronological order. The idea is to make browsing back through past updates, pictures and other profile information easier.

Timeline is currently an update but will eventually become the person's default profile. It won't change any of the privacy settings a person has set, but what Firth, and it seems many others want, is the choice of whether to use this new feature or turn it off.

Firth explained that many people want this choice and have logged their desire for this with Facebook: "You can already find these posts if you look hard enough. But most people wouldn't bother going back years to look for those.

"So I'm not saying this new feature is outright bad. In fact I'm saying it has many elements that are good that some people may enjoy but there's no clear option to go back and turn this feature off. It is a question of choice."

In response to our queries about Timeline, a representative for Facebook told Computeractive that Timeline adds to privacy.

"Timeline simply gives you more control over individual items of content. You can delete posts, pictures, status updates, wall posts from your timeline. Or you can hide them so only you can see them.

"Along with lists - you can use Timeline to show a different profile to different groups of people - so you can show some posts only to your work colleagues while your friends get to see party pictures."