Nowadays people don't seem very worried about their privacy. They actually seem to want no privacy at all! They post everything to their Facebook and their Twitter and Youtube and yell "OTW TO TACO BELL!!!" from the rooftops! If you are someone who likes to share with everyone then this post isn't for you. This post is for anyone who wants to make sure their Facebook isn't being broadcast to anyone they aren't expecting.
Just today I saw this post from a friend of mine on Facebook:
"FACEBOOK HAS CHANGED THEIR PRIVACY SETTINGS ONCE MORE!!! DUE TO THE NEW
“GRAPH APP” ANYONE ON FACEBOOK (INCLUDING OTHER COUNTRIES) CAN SEE YOUR
PICTURES, LIKES, AND COMMENTS. The next 2 weeks I will be posting this,
and please once you have done it please post DONE! Those of you who do
not keep my information from going out to the public, I will have to
DELETE YOU! I want to stay PRIVATELY connected with you. I post shots of
my family that I don't want strangers to have access to!!! This happens
when our friends click "like" or "comment"... automatically, their
friends would see our posts too. Unfortunately, we cannot change this
setting by ourselves because Facebook has configured it that way. PLEASE
place your mouse over my name above (DO NOT CLICK), a window will
appear, now move the mouse on “FRIENDS" (also without clicking), then
down to "Settings", click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK
on "LIFE EVENTS" and "COMMENTS & LIKES". By doing this, my activity
among my friends and family will no longer become public. Now, copy and
paste this on your wall. Once I see this posted on your page, I will do
the same."
I have always kept my privacy settings on Facebook set so that only friends can see anything, but this post alarmed me. I complied with the request and then set out looking for more information about this "graph app" and the warning itself. I found posts in TechCrunch, Snopes, and About.com that better explained the warning. Graph Search will not show anyone anything that you haven't already given them permission to see. Also, following the instructions in the post will only block your friend's updates from appearing in your News Feed and your updates from appearing in theirs. So following these instructions (to keep your friend) have only blocked you from seeing what they post. I was relieved that my privacy settings on Facebook still overrode this new search feature, but it got me thinking about my overall Internet privacy. More on that later, but for now, I would like to highly recommend you revisit Facebook's privacy settings.
***Now remember, you can change your settings so that only friends can see your posts, but if another person is tagged in the post that person's settings apply to it through their Timeline. For example, if you post a status update that is set to "Friends," but you tag Joe Snuffy in it, then anyone who can see his profile can see your post.***
At the top right of your screen you'll see a little gear icon, click this and then click Privacy Settings. Clicking on any of the options on this page will show you a brief description, and I highly recommend reading everything under Privacy AND Timeline and Tagging. Change everything to "Friends" or "Only Me" and you will have a relatively private Facebook page.
If you haven't always been tracking Facebook's privacy settings or are just worried that you might have posted something that is viewable by the public, Facebook provides an easy fix. This will change anything that you've ever posted as "Public" or "Friends of Friends" to "Friends." Click Limit Past Posts --> Limit Old Posts --> Confirm
You can also choose whether to allow search engines to link to your profile, whether to be notified and asked for approval whenever someone tags you or tries to tag something of yours, and view your activity log.
Under Ads you will see this: "Facebook does not give third
party applications or ad networks the right to use your name or picture
in ads. If we allow this in the future, the setting you choose will
determine how your information is used." I'm not sure what that means, but if it has anything to do with giving my information to third parties then I'm against it. Click Edit --> No One --> Save Changes.
Once you change everything to "Friends" or "Only Me" your posts are as private as you have set them to be, but remember that if you aren't the only one tagged in something then you are depending on the other tagged people to be privacy-conscious as well.
