Recent Facebook Privacy Changes That Affect You
You may have noticed a couple changes in Facebook lately. Early last week Facebook changed being a ‘fan’ of a page to simply liking a page with ‘like’. Facebook thought this would be a simpler way for people to indicate their interest in a page and apparently this appeals to all those non-committal types out there who aren’t necessarily ready to call themselves a full-fledged fan of something or someone. I say fair enough. “Like” doesn’t convey the same kind of enthusiasm that makes Facebook fun in my opionion, but all right, I’ll tone it down.
The day after Facebook invented this toned down ‘like’ feature they let us know about all the great partnerships they have with websites like Bing and Yelp where those sites would sync our Facebook public information so that we could “like” things via those sites and businesses. Sure, we all know what public means on the internet by now – anything you say can and will be held against you (and embarrassing photos/stories/comments will forever live on a la Pamela Anderson). The problem I see here is that the average Facebook user doesn’t take the time to adjust their Facebook privacy settings. When this new ‘like’ feature came out FB did have a message upon logging in about their brilliant scheme to share information and the average user nodded their head and clicked “close” to get to the next page where they could share or catch up on the latest news feed.
The problem here is that internet privacy is a real issue that a lot of people don’t take seriously enough. They might be “googling” other people, but they aren’t always considering what is googleable about them. Public settings means Google indexes your profile in search results. That’s HUGE. A few months ago when FB announced this indexing they didn’t cover any details about the magnitude of that. Everything you put out there on FB (your address, phone number, email, personal details, who you’re friends with, photos of you, etc, etc, etc) were automatically set to Public. These are details you may have been comfortable with your friends knowing, but certainly not telemarketing companies and other total strangers mining Facebook. Not cool.
I highly encourage you to check your FB settings every time FB makes a change announcement – and even better do it periodically as well. Give some serious thought to what you want to share with people you don’t even know. It’s one thing for businesses to put their already public profiles on Facebook, but it’s another for individuals just looking to connect with friends and family online. All of us need to be vigilant about what we put out there. Remember, most websites don’t default to making your information secure/private. You need to read the fine print and check your account settings – and that extends to sites beyond FB.
Here are some resources you should know about:
Facebook’s Privacy Policy http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
How to edit your FB profile privacy settings http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=15668
Facebook’s very own guide to privacy http://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.php
Facebook Privacy Loophole http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/26/facebook-privacy-hole
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