From 1st December Facebook users will no longer have the option to specify their political views, religion, sexual preferences and their interests in their profiles. 

These fields, which are normally displayed in the section 'About' of each Facebook user, have long been a unique characteristic of the platform, as other social media networks don't offer such details. 

The change was first spotted by social media consultant, Matt Navarra.

Users should be able to see a notification at the top of their profile informing them of the update as well as giving them the option to download the information before it disappears. 

Although Facebook's owner Meta has not given any public reasons for the change, there's speculation it might be related to the many privacy issues the company has faced recently. 

A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch: "As part of our efforts to make Facebook easier to navigate and use, we're removing a handful of profile fields: Interested In, Religious Views, Political Views, 
and Address. 

"We're sending notifications to people who have these fields filled out, letting them know these fields will be removed. 

"This change doesn't affect anyone's ability to share this information about themselves elsewhere on Facebook."