With all the talk lately about Facebook Privacy I decided to revisit my Facebook Privacy settings again.  I wrote about this back in December (frightening – only about 6 months ago) but needed to check again as they changed things again, and then again.  Unfortunately I think it’s going to become a way of life in Facebook

k to have to keep checking this stuff – as I fear they are on a path from private to public – as they can make more money that way.  Of course this is quite annoying to some of us – as it feels like a breach of trust. To see your settings hover over “Account” (on the upper-right part of the screen) then “Privacy Settings”.

One thing Facebook just recently did was publish a summary of your privacy settings – which is good.  On the right I’m showing my settings – which are pretty conservative.  I basically set most of my stuff to be private – i.e. only my friends can see it – as I use Facebook in a private manner (For public items I have a website, Facebook FAN Pages,  Twitter, etc.) – for me it’s me – only for my friends.  I would highly recommend that everyone review these settings very carefully to know what you are sharing – your posts, photos, bio, who can comment on posts, contact information, etc.

What’s disturbing is if you look at the recommended settings how much they recommend to be public.  Do you know that if you use their recommended settings anything you post is visible to EVERYONE?  That the pictures of your kids you posted are also visible to EVERYONE?  Maybe my mom is onto something when she’s concerned about posting pictures of my kids online – and Facebook was supposed to be a safer place.   They’re explanation of this is here –  which I find somewhat weak – as their theory is that anytime you do anything you can choose to make it more private.  Again – it’s what I believe their push to make everyone public by default – so they make more money with your data and expand their reach.

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The next thing to look at is “applications” area – which is a very dangerous area in Facebook – in that what your friends do can expose information about you without you explicitly giving permission. On the lower left of the previous screen is a link under “Applications and Websites” labeled “Edit your Settings”.   This

page has some interesting information – as it shows all the applications that you have associated with your profile (and a link to delete them).  On this screen you can also set who can see your activity in these applications (mostly games).  Where the real meat is is under the subsequent settings – “Info Accessible through your friends” and “Instant Personalization”.  I would highly recommend you look at the first item: “Info Accessible through your friends” – as it might surprise you.

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What is not commonly know is that an application – those games you play – can access your friends information – not just your information.  In one sense it makes sense that the application, to be personal, needs to access your personal information in order for it to work.  That said it still disturbs me what they might be doing with your information – as I ‘m not sure that everyone creating apps for Facebook respects privacy.  But the critical part is that you think about what you want to share with applications used by your friends.  Do you want the application your friend is using (not you) to have access to your photos, your posts, your notes, your bios – if your online, etc.?  My settings are on the right – I only allow my birthday (for friends to help remember mine) and my website (which is public anyway).

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The next thing I recommend is that you look at your “directory” settings (at the top of your main privacy settings – which is under “Account”, then “Privacy Settings”).  This is largely about who can see and contact you – so I have mixed feelings about this page.  In one sense it would make sense to make everything set to “Friends” – as would be safest. However that might limit the ability of someone who is not your friend (or a friend of a friend) from finding or contacting you – so it’s a balancing act.  I would recommend you read the paragraph at the top of this settings page – as it indicates what you have no choice in being public.  The one I question now is whether anyone should be able to send me a friend request – as I’ve recently received some odd requests on that one.

So for now I’m keeping my facebook profile with the concept of it being private. This may turn out to be a dangerous choice – but for now it’s where I choose to be.  I will be vigilant with my privacy settings – and I encourage you to do the same.  I do, however, have Facebook “FAN” pages (Andrew Help, Me! and God Loves Andrew)  - which is where I choose to be public.  So for me I have this concept of private and public separated.  The other thing though you have to keep in mind is that your friends can always share something with people you don’t expect – so be careful with what you post.  Just like someone can forward an e-mail that you meant to be private they can share what you post on Facebook.

If you’re still concerned here are some alternatives:

  • Consider everything, and I mean everything you do to be public – regardless of you settings.  Treat it like a public blog – and not a private space.  Don’t put anything out there you don’t want the whole world to know.
  • Create a profile under a fake name – so that only your friends know it’s you – so that colleges, employers, etc. can’t research you on Facebook.
  • Create a new bare bones Facebook Account
  • Delete your Facebook Account (you might not miss it)

I plan on looking more into this “personalization” (social graph) concept for Facebook – as I just tried it on Pandora.  For now I’m completely undecided on it -more concerned about Facebook than about the other sites right now…

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