But he added that the new changes brought some initial confusion, because when he looked at his privacy settings Wednesday and couldn't find individual users who he set to online have limited access to his profile.

Josh Catone, a blogger at ReadWriteWeb, added that when the friends list feature was rolled out in December, he called it a necessary first step in attracting the business networking crowd to Facebook. However, he also noted that the feature "had no teeth" due to a lack of privacy controls. That has changed because the new features give users the option of showing private information to only specific friends or "friends of friends," which is similar to features in the more business oriented LinkedIn professional networking site, Catone added.

"While going after the business networking crowd has never been an objective expressed overtly by the company, it does make sense," he said. "As Facebook's core early audience -- college students -- grows up, they'll need a more secure environment to network with colleagues and friends. Facebook is slowly positioning itself to be a place where both casual and business networking can take place at the same time, which means that rather than maintaining two accounts -- one at Facebook and one at LinkedIn or Xing -- users could stay at Facebook and use the tools they grew accustomed to in college."

Not all industry observers were pleased with the changes. Jeffrey Chester, founder and executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy -- one of the strongest critic of Beacon's initial lack of privacy controls -- noted that Facebook still has to ensure that its members are candidly informed about any personal data shared with advertisers and marketers.

"Its incremental improvements - all due to the increasing scrutiny in the EU and US and from privacy advocates - are occurring at a snail's pace," he said. "Facebook's senior managers still have not come to terms with the need for them to ensure transparency and full user control."