10 Essential Privacy Settings on Facebook

As I was writing this I took time to look at all of the privacy settings on Facebook. I came away thinking that I have a lot of control of what I want to share and what I want private. I also felt a little strange about how many privacy choices there are and how easy it is to miss some of the settings that seem important.  An article from mashable.com really helped me to figure out some of the most important settings.

Facebook privacy settings
http://mashable.com/2011/02/07/facebook-privacy-guide/

1. Sharing Settings:

Account > Privacy Settings > Sharing on Facebook
Facebook allows you to set your sharing settings so that everyone, friends of friends (this means that your friends can see your content and THEIR friends can see them also) or only friends can see your content. Each item is listed and you can either set them all the same way or do a custom setting where  each one has different setting. If you do not indicate what you want it is possible that some of your content (pictures, status updates, etc...) will be seen by friends of your friends. This could be a LOT of people that you do not really know.

 

2. Existing Photo Settings:
Account > Privacy Settings > Sharing on Facebook > Customize Settings > Edit album privacy for existing photos
It is really important to make sure to set the privacy settings for your existing photo albums. As you create each album you choose what level of privacy it should have. However, your existing albums are probably all set as viewable by everyone. When I went in and checked mine were.




3. Friends Checking you into Places:

Account > Privacy Settings > Sharing on Facebook > Customize Settings > Friends can check me in to Places
If you do not want someone else notifying the world where you are you may want to be sure to change this setting.
It lets your friends check you in to Places. "Having someone else telling the world where you are can be unpleasant and even dangerous in some cases. If you want to avoid it, disable this feature."

4. Connecting on Facebook 
Account > Privacy Settings > Connecting on Facebook
These settings determine how people can find you on Facebook. Can anyone search for you? Are your listings open to everyone? 

5. Apps You Use
Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Apps You Use
Facebook is full of additional apps (or applications). For example Yelp, Pandora, etc... Each one has its own privacy settings. Either go to each one and be sure that you are in agreement with how they are sharing your content or remove them and only keep the ones you use regularly.

6. Instant Personalization
Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Instant Personalization
This allows third party companies to access your information so that they can tailor their information to match your interest. I think this is sort of spooky and also sort of amazing. These sites can only access information that you have marked for public sharing.

7.  Info Accessible through your friends:
Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Info accessible through your friends
You may think that you have set all of your settings so that only your friends can see what is there, but until you have gone to this level and indicated which information can be shared through them you are not done with setup. I was pleased to see that the default was that NO information was shared and that I had the choice to add specific things to share.

8.  Public Search
Account > Privacy Settings > Apps and Websites > Public Search
Do you want people to be able to search for you through Google or another search engine and find your Facebook page? They will still have to request to be your friend, but you can set it up so that your profile does not even show up when someone searches in Google or other places.

9. Friend Lists
Friends > Edit Friends > Create a List
You can simplify setting up your privacy settings by creating lists of friends that fall into different groups. For example: family, work friends, childhood friends, etc...  You can then set up privacy settings that apply to a group rather than an individual.

10. Using HTTPS
Account > Account Settings > Account Security > Secure Browsing (HTTPS)
Now go back to the main page and choose Account>Account Settings rather than Privacy Settings. There is a setting called Account Security. It talks about secure browsing with HTTPS.  HTTPS is a programming language behind Facebook that will make it more difficult for anyone to hack into your account. It is recommended that you choose this setting to be more secure.

One problem with these settings is that they keep changing. Keeping up with new ones can be a problem. Even now there is a warning that appears on top of the privacy settings:

I have decided to do the best I can to set up my privacy settings so that they work for me. I know that they are not perfect, but the benefits of using Facebook in my opinion outweigh the questions of privacy. I know and respect that everyone does not feel that way and so each person has to decide for themselves about this issue.







 

Pros and Cons of Joining Facebook

It seems like everyone is using Facebook these days. Some people are still unsure about using it. This week each post will be about Facebook. It is not a attempt to get you to use it if you have not. I think it is good for you to make your own decision. That is why this first post talks about the pros and cons of using it.  If you have any questions or comments I hope you will add them.

INTRODUCTION TO FACEBOOK

Facebook is the largest Social Network (online program that connects people) and has around 750 million active users. Listed below are some of the features of the site:

FRIENDS

Facebook exists to connect friends to each other. When you sign up for facebook at first you do not have any friends. You have to invite people to be your friend and they have to confirm before they are added to your page and you get their status updates. Some people try for the most friends possible and 'friend' anyone that they possibly know, others only 'friend' family members. It is up to you. You can also UNFRIEND someone. This takes them off of your friend list, but they are not notified and must take notice themselves that they are no longer receiving your updates.

STATUS

When a person is logged into the site there is a box at the top where you can type a little about yourself. You can also post a picture here or link to something on the Internet. People often link to YouTube videos. Whatever you put here can only be seen by the people that you have set up in your privacy settings. When you have friends you will see a list of their status updates when you log in. When they log in, if it is near the same time you posted they will see what you wrote.

POKES

If you use the SEARCH at the top you can find people. On their page you can see what they have allowed you to see in their privacy settings, but you can also "POKE" them.  All this means is that they get a note saying that "_____ has poked you, do you want to poke them back?" If you don't have something to say to someone, but want to let them know that you have been to their page you can POKE them.

MESSAGES

Younger people tend not to do email anymore. They do Facebook. They get on and check the status messages on the front of the page. At the top there is a little red bubble with a number on it that shows what has changed since you last logged in. It indicates if you have any messages. You can then go and read them and reply. It works a lot like email.

PHOTOS

This is the largest reason that many people use Facebook. It is easy to upload photos from your computer or camera and to make them available to anyone. Again, this is something you set up in your profile. When you put a picture up on Facebook it is stored in the cloud on one of Facebook's servers. You can create albums of pictures with a maximum of 200 pictures per album. This is all free.

LIKE PAGES

Organizations or companies can start pages and instead of 'friending' them you like them. When a LIKE PAGE posts something it will go on your page and be listed in your STATUS updates, but when you post it does not go to their page. Lots of companies are asking you to "like" them on Facebook. They are hoping that this will get them more business. I'm Not a Geek has just set up a LIKE PAGE. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Im-Not-a-Geekcom/151675098246963. It has 7 friends so far! People are only allowed to have ONE Facebook page.

GROUPS

If you have a group of friends or a committee that needs a place online to share and connect you can sign up for a GROUP. A group creates a password protected space whoever created it is the Administrator and everyone else needs to be invited or request and be approved to belong.

NOTES

This is a little like a blog. You can write longer posts about anything you want and it scrolls chronologically with the newest at the top.

GIFTS

You can actually purchase (for real money) gifts for your friends on facebook. These are virtual items that cost $1.

MARKETPLACE

Facebook has targeted ads that show up on the side of your page. These ads show up depending on the location and interests of the person who is logged in. The person who creates the ad pays Facebook every time the ad is clicked.

CHAT-VIDEO CHAT

Facebook has a feature that allows you to CHAT in realtime with any of your friends that are online. Either on the right sidebar or on the bottom of the left bar it tells who is online. If you click on one of them the chat window opens at the bottom and you can type a message that will show up immediately on their page. Then they can type back. Facebook is

WORLDWIDE

Facebook is popular worldwide. When I was in Bethlehem all of the kids knew about and were using Facebook. I have friends in Turkey who post in Turkish, in the Palestinian West Bank who post in Arabic, in Mexico who post in Spanish, and even in Denmark who post in Danish

POSITIVE

There are many positive reasons for using Facebook.

• Many people have reunited with old friends or family members. 
• It is an easy place to share photos of yourself and your family for others to see. 
• It allows people to see things about you that you may not have shared or had time to tell them. When we were recently doing a home remodel I posted pictures of the progress as it happened. I was surprised at the number of people from my work that commented on it. I have also been aware of vacations or important things that have happened to coworkers that I may not have known about and it helped build closeness.
• It is easy to share one thing to everyone you know with one message.

NEGATIVE

• Many people are concerned about privacy issues with Facebook. At times the company has seemed to not respect the privacy of users, but because of backlash has set up easier to use settings. Setting privacy settings in Facebook will be another post. There are many choices so that you can customize who can see which parts of your page. However, there is always concern about privacy when so much of your own content is stored on someone else's servers.
• Another common concern is bullying. This has become quite a problem for teenagers. It is very easy to victimize someone online and make fun of their profile. Some people have also found out how to hack into others accounts.
• An interesting and unclear topic is who owns all of the content on Facebook. Do they have the right to your information and photos or do you still own them after you have posted them there? What about when someone passes away? What happens to their profile and their page?

Much of the content of the Intro to Facebook came from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook