Facebook Privacy
Facebook is HUGE!!! Over 400 Million users… That would be the 3 largest country in the world… Well when our national security is at risk we are warned, right?!?! Ya know, that red, orange, yellow thing you always hear about on the news and such. Well when over 400 Million people’s private information (or so they believe) is being potentially leaked to sources and people they are unaware of, would you not consider that something to be concerned with.
So I have written in a previous post about my avid listening of the TWIT (twit.tv) network with Leo Laporte and friends. Well lately, this has been a rather common topic on a range of his shows. The question of “is this really a big deal?” or not is asked and just about all of the guests agree that Facebook is potentially misleading most of their users.
Let me break it down for you. The way Facebook settings are now, by default, a friend of a friend can read and see your photo’s, posts, birthday and for some, your phone number. Not cool right. Well that’s not all. Some websites like Yelp and CNN are in on this too. If you visit Yelp.com, while signed in to Facebook, you will get a bar at the top like this:
Whats this mean? Well this means that anything I see on Yelp, can be viewed by my friends and their friends. Not cool. Why should you care though. Well think about everything you have ever stated on a Facebook post. Have you ever posted anything that you didn’t want certain people to see? Well maybe they are not your friend but they are a friend of a friends. They can see it all. Yes this can be fixed in Facebook though, which I strongly urge you all to do.
To Opt out of other websites updating your friends on things are looking at simply click (in Facebook) Account>Privacy Settings>Edit Settings (next to “Instant Personalization Pilot Program”)>and then UNCHECK the box at the bottom that states “Allow select partners to instantly personalize their features with my public information when I first arrive on their websites.”. A message box will pop up… make sure you click CONFIRM. All done.
To protect yourself from revealing things to those who are forbidden, make sure all of your privacy settings in your account (found in: Account>Privacy Settings>Friends, Tags and Connections) are set to “Only Friends”. Also, click on Contact Information and change the settings on who can view what there as well. It’s important that you take your privacy back. Don’t leave it unless you want to broadcast yourself.
Hope all of this helped. Later for now!!!
Tags: Facebook, Facebook Privacy Settings, information protection, Leo Laporte, online privacy, TWIT
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