This week in social media, Facebook clarified its privacy settings, Instagram finally lets users edit photo captions after posting, and Snapchat beefed up its security. Meanwhile, Ocho launched to rival Vine, and Twitter announced more new features while getting an official "junk" rating from a major Wall Street index.

It's time for Social Media Saturday!

Facebook

Privacy Policy in Plain English

This week, Facebook announced an interactive website that helps users understand the social media giant's privacy policy, in an increasing push to make Facebookers and potential new users feel in control -- or at least in the know -- when it comes to who collects their data online.

The new webpage is called Privacy Basics and it guides users through a short program that teaches them what Facebook collects about users, how data is shared with advertisers, and how to adjust the privacy controls that Facebook offers for posts and profile information.

The company also updated its data policy, but don't take that as a sign that it's given up on knowing exactly everything it can about you. Facebook (now) clearly states that it collects data on everything you do on Facebook's site and apps, everything people post regarding you, any information about the apps which log into your Facebook account, and all device information about the computers, tablets, phones, Internet providers and anything else about the tools you use to access Facebook.

Check out the Privacy Basics page for more details on Facebook's data policy and how to use privacy settings.

Just in Time for Thanksgiving, "Say Thanks"

Facebook launched a new personalized video tool -- much like the sappy, personalized "A Look Back" that became so popular last year, except sappier.

Soon, you'll be able to choose a friend, and Facebook will create a video to celebrate your relationship. You'll be able to edit posts and photos to better fine-tune the video, as well as choosing between a few themes, and you'll have the option of writing a personalized message before sharing.

Of course, CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the time to create the first one-minute "Say Thanks" video for his wife. (Post by Mark Zuckerberg.)

Based on that, you can expect to be swamped with saccharine sentimentality as soon as the Say Thanks tool rolls out.

Instagram: Now You Can Fix Your Caption Mistakes

One frustrating, persistent limitation of Facebook-owned Instagram just disappeared. Instagram announced this week that you can now fix those typos and misspellings on the captions of photos you've already posted by clicking "Edit," located in the menu under your image.

Hurray! That means no more deleting and re-posting -- or just giving up and looking like a fool.

Twitter:

CEO Dick Costolo Introduces New Changes

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced on Wednesday some changes in how Twitter interacts with non-veteran users -- changes that definitely come off as Twitter trying to fortify itself against critics and skeptics on Wall Street.

The captain of the Twitter ship-run-aground said the social media company will be rolling out an "instant timeline" that lets regular Internet users see what's happening across Twitter without needing to follow people first.

This new feature -- along with coming changes to the sign-up process -- will ostensibly help capture more of a potential growth base than it has before. According to SFGate, Costolo said that 500 million people use Twitter every month to check out profiles or to read particular tweets, but about 125 million go to Twitter and never sign up.

"Junk" Rating from S&P

A day later, according to The Guardian, Twitter was assigned a "junk-grade rating" from Standard & Poor's Ratings division. In technical terms, Twitter got a BB- corporate credit rating, which puts it right in the middle of junk-rated companies.

However, in a bit of good news, S&P did predict Twitter would have strong growth in both users and revenue. When it comes to Twitter and Wall Street, you take what you can get.

Snapchat's Starting to Care About Security

Snapchat, the company that has wrangled with and often dismissed warnings from white-hat security experts; The company that had an unprecedented hack, leaking 90,000 images that its users believed had auto-destructed shortly after sending them; The company that the Federal Trade Commission ordered to take on an outside privacy expert to monitor how it treats its users' data...

Snapchat -- that same company -- just began taking user privacy seriously. This week, Snapchat announced it not only disapproved third-party access to its social network, but would also warn users and reset their login credentials if any third-party apps were detected. That's a good start towards protecting its userbase, most of who are between the ages of 13 and 18, from malicious hackers.

Ocho: Like Vine, But This One Goes to Eight

A new video creation platform called Ocho launched an iOS app this week, backed by funding from "maverick" billionaire Mark Cuban.

The app is geared towards high-quality video production, and instead of Vine's 6-second limit, Ocho allows for videos up to... you guessed it -- eight minutes long.

That's not the only thing different about Ocho though. According to a hands-on test by TechCrunch, Ocho also allows you to record more than eight seconds of footage, and then speed it up with time-lapse editing. You can also add voice overs and filters that you can adjust throughout the video in post.

Ocho decided to crank up the video limit to eight seconds (instead of, for example going to 11) based on a particularly depressing statistic. As of 2013, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information and the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight.

Fun fact: That's one second less than the average attention span of a gold fish.

I just lost your attention didn't I?

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