[Infowarrior] - The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now
Richard Forno
rforno at infowarrior.org
Thu Jan 28 20:34:05 UTC 2010
January 20, 2010
The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now
By SARAH PEREZ of ReadWriteWeb
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/01/20/20readwriteweb-the-3-facebook-settings-every-user-should-c-29287.html
In December, Facebook made a series of bold and controversial changes
regarding the nature of its users' privacy on the social networking
site. The company once known for protecting privacy to the point of
exclusivity (it began its days as a network for college kids only - no
one else even had access), now seemingly wants to compete with more
open social networks like the microblogging media darling Twitter.
Those of you who edited your privacy settings prior to December's
change have nothing to worry about - that is, assuming you elected to
keep your personalized settings when prompted by Facebook's
"transition tool." The tool, a dialog box explaining the changes,
appeared at the top of Facebook homepages this past month with its own
selection of recommended settings. Unfortunately, most Facebook users
likely opted for the recommended settings without really understanding
what they were agreeing to. If you did so, you may now be surprised to
find that you inadvertently gave Facebook the right to publicize your
private information including status updates, photos, and shared links.
Want to change things back? Read on to find out how.
1. Who Can See The Things You Share (Status Updates, Photo, Videos,
etc.)
Probably the most critical of the "privacy" changes (yes, we mean
those quotes sarcastically) was the change made to status updates.
Although there's now a button beneath the status update field that
lets you select who can view any particular update, the new Facebook
default for this setting is "Everyone." And by everyone, they mean
everyone.
If you accepted the new recommended settings then you voluntarily gave
Facebook the right to share the information about the items you post
with any user or application on the site. Depending on your search
settings, you may have also given Facebook the right to share that
information with search engines, too.
To change this setting back to something of a more private nature, do
the following:
• From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at
the top right and click "Privacy Settings" from the list that appears.
• Click "Profile Information" from the list of choices on the next
page.
• Scroll down to the setting "Posts by Me." This encompasses anything
you post, including status updates, links, notes, photos, and videos.
• Change this setting using the drop-down box on the right. We
recommend the "Only Friends" setting to ensure that only those people
you've specifically added as a friend on the network can see the
things you post.
2. Who Can See Your Personal Info
Facebook has a section of your profile called "personal info," but it
only includes your interests, activities, and favorites. Other
arguably more personal information is not encompassed by the "personal
info" setting on Facebook's Privacy Settings page. That other
information includes things like your birthday, your religious and
political views, and your relationship status.
After last month's privacy changes, Facebook set the new defaults for
this other information to viewable by either "Everyone" (for family
and relationships, aka relationship status) or to "Friends of
Friends" (birthday, religious and political views). Depending on your
own preferences, you can update each of these fields as you see fit.
However, we would bet that many will want to set these to "Only
Friends" as well. To do so:
• From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at
the top right and click "Privacy Settings" from the list that appears.
• Click "Profile Information" from the list of choices on the next
page.
• The third, fourth, and fifth item listed on this page are as
follows: "birthday," "religious and political views," and "family and
relationship." Locking down birthday to "Only Friends" is wise here,
especially considering information such as this is often used in
identity theft.
• Depending on your own personal preferences, you may or may not feel
comfortable sharing your relationship status and religious and
political views with complete strangers. And keep in mind, any setting
besides "Only Friends" is just that - a stranger. While "Friends of
Friends" sounds innocuous enough, it refers to everyone your friends
have added as friends, a large group containing hundreds if not
thousands of people you don't know. All it takes is one less-than-
selective friend in your network to give an unsavory person access to
this information.
3. What Google Can See - Keep Your Data Off the Search Engines
When you visit Facebook's Search Settings page, a warning message pops
up. Apparently, Facebook wants to clear the air about what info is
being indexed by Google. The message reads:
There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all
your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public
search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and
see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic
set of information.
While that may be true to a point, the second setting listed on this
Search Settings page refers to exactly what you're allowing Google to
index. If the box next to "Allow" is checked, you're giving search
engines the ability to access and index any information you've marked
as visible by "Everyone." As you can see from the settings discussed
above, if you had not made some changes to certain fields, you would
be sharing quite a bit with the search engines...probably more
information than you were comfortable with. To keep your data private
and out of the search engines, do the following:
• From your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at
the top right and click "Privacy Settings" from the list that appears.
• Click "Search" from the list of choices on the next page.
• Click "Close" on the pop-up message that appears.
• On this page, uncheck the box labeled "Allow" next to the second
setting "Public Search Results." That keeps all your publicly shared
information (items set to viewable by "Everyone") out of the search
engines. If you want to see what the end result looks like, click the
"see preview" link in blue underneath this setting.
Take 5 Minutes to Protect Your Privacy
While these three settings are, in our opinion, the most critical,
they're by no means the only privacy settings worth a look. In a
previous article (written prior to December's changes, so now out-of-
date), we also looked at things like who can find you via Facebook's
own search, application security, and more.
While you may think these sorts of items aren't worth your time now,
the next time you lose out on a job because the HR manager viewed your
questionable Facebook photos or saw something inappropriate a friend
posted on your wall, you may have second thoughts. But why wait until
something bad happens before you address the issue?
Considering that Facebook itself is no longer looking out for you,
it's time to be proactive about things and look out for yourself
instead. Taking a few minutes to run through all the available privacy
settings and educating yourself on what they mean could mean the world
of difference to you at some later point...That is, unless you agree
with Facebook in thinking that the world is becoming more open and
therefore you should too.
Note: Other resources on Facebook's latest changes worth reading
include MakeUseOf's 8 Steps Toward Regaining your Privacy, 17 steps to
protect your privacy from Inside Facebook, the ACLU's article
examining the changes, and DotRights.org's comprehensive analysis of
the new settings. If you're unhappy enough to protest Facebook's
privacy update, you can sign ACLU's petition. The FTC is also looking
into the matter thanks to a complaint filed by a coalition of privacy
groups, led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. You can add
your voice to the list of complaints here.
Copyright 2010 ReadWriteWeb. All Rights Reserved.
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