Blizzard came out with some new changes to the way your privacy will be handled in the Real-ID system today, most notably the ability to opt-out of the “Friends of Friends” feature that everyone found so controversial from the get-go. This means that friends of people you’ve listed as friends on Battle.net won’t be able to automatically see you and add you as friends anymore.

Also in the announcement? That long-predicted integration with Facebook that people have grumbled about and snarked about for a while – but it’s not like game data goes to Facebook, you just have the opportunity to import your Facebook friends into Battle.net if they’ve provided their information. Here’s the whole announcement Nethaera posted to the official forums:

We’d like to make you aware of the new Real ID-related privacy options we’ve introduced to Battle.net. These options provide Real ID users with additional tools for customizing the service based on their preferences, enabling the ability to opt in or out of the Real ID “Friends of Friends” and “Add Facebook Friends” features or to turn off Real ID altogether.

Real ID offers an optional, convenient way for keeping in touch with real-world friends you know and trust, whether they’re playing World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, or one of our future games. The “Friends of Friends” and “Add Facebook Friends” features provide you with even more options to stay connected while you play by making it easier for real-life friends to locate each other on Battle.net. You can easily enable or disable these features through your Battle.net privacy settings by logging in to your Battle.net account at http://www.battle.net/.

That will likely quell some of the complaints about Real ID intruding so much on your privacy and security…and then open up others with that Facebook integration.