1. Limit Sharing to Friends Only
This suggestion is diametrically opposed to Zuckerberg's famous "the age of privacy is over" declaration in 2009 in which he decided that everyone should share
everything they posted on Facebook with everyone else. Later he
retreated on this statement. The FTC stepped in, especially as the Timeline era approached. Facebook users can set the default to "friends only," and that's exactly what Downey suggests.
"If you're sharing with 'friends of friends,' you're exposing your
info to an average of 150,000 people," says Downey. "When your data is
open to the public, it can - and does - end up anywhere: the Girls
Around Me app or
Spokeo.com are two creepy examples."
To change the settings to friends-only, go to Privacy Settings, and
select "Friends" or "Custom." Adjust the settings according to whom you
would prefer sees your posts. Note that if you check the "Friends of
those tagged" box, you are allowing Facebook to share the post on your
wall with the friends of the person tagged.
2. Don't Let Your Friends Share Your Info
Pay close attention to requests from random Facebook social apps like
BranchOut.
(Plus, do you really want to do "career networking" on Facebook? Casual
networking is one thing, but for purely professional connecting, go to
LinkedIn.)
"BranchOut requests your basic info; your email address; your profile
info: education history, location and work history; and your friends'
profile information, including their education histories, locations and
work histories," says Abine. "Even without
your permission, BranchOut can access your friends' permission."
This is not only intrusive, yes, but also indicative of something
more important: As soon as you become Facebook friends with another
user, you are allowing them to access a great deal of information about
you. This is even more reason to watch what you share on your Facebook
profile and who you become friends with.
To change this setting, go to Privacy Settings > Apps, Games and
Websites. Then select "How people bring your info to apps they use." Go
through and uncheck information about yourself that you don't want your
friends to share via social apps and games.
3. Take Care of Your Taggage
That's right, I said taggage, not baggage. It's all kind of the same these days, though. Unlike Google+, which asks users if they'd like facial recognition
turned on in photos, Facebook offers "tag suggestions." This means that
when a photo that looks like you is uploaded to the network, Facebook
suggests adding a tag. It says that this helps "save time," especially
when many photos are uploaded from a single event. It does not tag you
automatically, but this sort of thing does count as facial recognition.
If you would like to opt-out of this feature, change the "who sees tag
suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded" option to "no
one."
If you don't mind keeping it within friends, select the "friends"
option. You can also adjust the Timeline and Tagging options, turning on
the review tags and review posts friends tag you in.
4. Limit Audience for Past Posts
The switch to Timeline
caused many to promptly wipe and clean up their Facebook profiles,
making them shiny new and pristine for friends. Changing the privacy
settings on old posts means that you're making a conscious decision to
share even past posts with only your current Facebook friends. This
includes posts you've previously made public, or posts you've shared
with people who you may not be friends with anymore. It poses an
interesting question - do you want to change your Facebook past? That
photo of an ex that you've since Facebook defriended,
or perhaps a friend that you needed to unfriend for a time? If those
photos represent memories, is it really necessary to go for a
one-size-fits-all vision of your Facebook past?
"Think of this button as a one-stop shop to edit visibility of all
your past Facebook posts," says Downey. "Anything that was open to the
public or friends of friends will change to friends only."
5. Make Your Subscriber Search Private
Do you want your Facebook profile to be a community space, or a
subscriber-based stream of you? Removing the public Subscribe option
will help keep random strangers out of your publicly facing community.
Badgeville's Director of Marketing
Adena DeMonte
was the eighth person to comment on Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of
the Subscribe button. Since then, she has accumulated 76,000 public
subscribers, a dramatically greater amount than the 10,000 who
discovered her Twitter over the years. It seems like a great way to
promote herself as a blogger, and her company as a whole. Right?
"The experience has been extremely poor, especially from a privacy
standpoint," says DeMonte. "While among my 76,000 subscribers I have a
sizable amount of intelligent people who I'd like to engage with, the
majority of my subscribers are middle-aged men from countries that do
not speak English, mostly in Indonesia, Malaysia, and India. That alone
is not bad, but the amount of inappropriate content produced by these
men and shared on my wall is overwhelming."
As a result, DeMonte has blocked comments by her subscribers. That's
not where the drama ends, however. These men have friend requested many
of her female friends, including her own mother. Her real friends
started unfriending her, too, and actually got upset with her.
Sometimes, a massive social media presence comes at a price.
"Unless you turn off Subscriber Search, anyone can subscribe to your
public posts, whether you know them or not," says Downey. "This means
that your 'public timeline' will show up in search engine results and
let anyone look up your timeline by name."
To change this, go to Account Settings > Subscribers, and uncheck the "allow subscribers" box.
8:35 AM
byungjin
Posted in: 
