How to protect your privacy on Facebook
Posted
Feb 24 2009, 07:29 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
We've written here a number of times about the importance of protecting your image online. You really don't want potential employers to view goofy photos you've shared with your friends on Facebook.
How do you navigate the privacy settings that limit your antics to friends-only eyes? We didn't really understand all the available options until we read a post at AllFacebook -- The Unofficial Facebook Resource. Chances are you may be revealing more about yourself than you know.
The post, by Nick O'Neill, is called "10 privacy settings every Facebook user should know." (If you have incorporated Facebook into your online routine, you really should bookmark this site.) It was brought to our attention by our old friend L.A. Johnson, who wrote about Facebook's most recent controversy involving the privacy of users' content in a story at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Among the precautions mentioned by Nick (who gives step-by-step lessons for using all 10):
- You can group your friends into relevant categories, like "friends," "family" and "professional," and pick specific privacy settings for each group.
- You can remove yourself from Facebook searches and from Google.
- You can prevent tagged photos or videos from showing up on the newsfeeds of friends of friends -- or beyond. Nick calls that "the classic Facebook problem." He says, "Some (users) have been fired from work after incriminating photos/videos were posted for the boss to see. For others, randomly tagged photos/videos have ended relationships."
- You don't need to broadcast a change of your relationship status -- another potential source of embarrassment if the wrong people see it.
- You can control who sees the posts on your wall.
For more about the privacy of all those applications you've downloaded, read this story in The Washington Post. Basically, when you accept an application, you're giving the developer access to your information and that of your friends.
Finally, study this Larry Magid quote from MercuryNews.com (and we recommend you read his post on privacy settings): "Any digital information that is posted can be copied, captured, cached, forwarded and reposted by anyone who has access to it. Even if some embarrassing photo or information is up for only a few minutes, there is the possibility that someone might copy it and send it around."
Related reading:
Facebook decides harassing members isn't a good idea
Facebook CEO: How we blew it
Facebook soars to No. 1 spot globally
