Facebook has installed a "privacy checkup" pop-up on its Web interface intended to help prevent users from sharing information that they don't intend to, according to a press release issued on Thursday. The feature walks users through a set of steps to let them see which groups of friends see which pieces of profile information, as well as information from third-party apps.

The feature first asks users to adjust their default privacy setting on posts and then to look through their Facebook-connected apps to adjust the privacy settings in each one or to revoke access. The last step pulls up the privacy settings of each profile element into one box with the same drop-down menu for tweaks.

Facebook's previous best effort at privacy transparency was its View As tool, which allows users to see their profile as another particular user might see it. While this helped with profile design, it didn't address app information or posting privacy status. Facebook will be prompting users in waves over the coming weeks to use the checkup, but completing it won't be required.

Facebook's own research on what people type and delete shows that people are more likely to self-censor when they feel like their audience is hard to define. By giving them an opportunity to narrow the audience and feel like they are more in control, Facebook might help its users open up more to the status box or image upload tool, giving the company more content to shuffle around in News Feeds.