Information about Facebook privacy is common knowledge. According to a poll conducted in March 2009, more than 70% of users were either not concerned or only slightly concerned about Facebook privacy issues. However, recent data showing that searches on the site return results linked to user profiles regardless of whether the user has marked their profiles as private may call into question Facebook’s commitment to privacy.
What does Facebook privacy mean for you?
It means that you get to choose what information is available to your friends and the public. You can also limit access to your profile by controlling who can see your posts and photos. Additionally, you can use Facebook privacy settings to keep certain pieces of information from being displayed on your profile. For example, you may not want your boss to see that you’re a fan of a particular band. Facebook privacy also means that you can control who can contact you through the site.
What controls do I have over Facebook privacy?
You can access your Facebook privacy settings by clicking on the “Account” menu at the top right of your profile and selecting “Privacy Settings.” This will take you to the Privacy Settings page, where you can choose who can see your posts and photos and control how others interact with you.
What information might Facebook show the public that I do not want to be seen?
By default, almost everything on your profile is visible to the public, including your name, profile picture, networks, username, and user ID. Information that is only visible to friends includes current city, hometown, occupation, and educational history.
Facebook Privacy Settings
Facebook privacy settings have changed a lot in the past few years. Here’s a guide to all the different options and what they mean for you. Your Facebook privacy settings are essential, and they’ve changed a lot in the past few years. Here’s a guide to all the different options and what they mean for you.
Facebook has a lot of different privacy settings, and it can be not very clear to know what they all mean. Here’s a guide to the most important ones:
Public Profile
Your public profile is what everyone sees when they search for you on Facebook. By default, it’s set to show your name, gender, username, and recent picture.
Public Posts
All your wall posts are automatically set to public, including anything you post on other people’s walls or any group/event you join. You can change whether or not you tag someone in a post, but it has no effect on the privacy of that post itself. Changing this setting doesn’t take away previous tags, so if you don’t want something showing up when people do an image search for it (for example), don’t tag them in it!
What does this mean?
This controls who can see what you write on walls and in groups. Search engines index publicly visible content — so if you only want certain people seeing it, don’t put it online.
- Friends of Friends
When you enable it, your friends can see what you post on any wall that isn’t private. What does this mean?
This controls whether your “friends” can see things you post on walls where the owner didn’t specifically change the privacy setting. Your friends cannot tag you in photos or posts that show up here unless you have this option turned on.
- Photos
By default, all new photos are set to public and tagged with you by default (even if there were multiple people). If tagging bothers you, go into the album and change who’s tagged as soon as possible! You can also turn off tagging entirely by unchecking the box next to photos. What this means:
This controls who can see your photos and videos, both those you upload and any that you’re tagged in. You can also control whether or not people can tag you in their photos.
- Status Updates
By default, all your posts are public, although there’s a “friends only” option for later levels of privacy if you want them to be seen only by friends. What does this mean?
This controls who can see what you write on walls and in groups. Search engines index publicly visible content — so if you only want certain people seeing it, don’t put it online!
- Comments
By default, everyone can see your comments on public posts. You can change this to friends only or no one, but it won’t affect who can see the post itself. What does this mean?
This controls who can see your comments on other people’s posts, regardless of whether or not you’re friends with them. Change this setting if you want to comment on a position but don’t want everyone to see your comment.
- App Settings
Apps you use may have access to different levels of your Facebook data depending on the permissions you granted them when you installed them. For example, if an app has permission to view your friend list, it will see all your friends’ public information by default. It may have been set up to only share data with friends, but if you do so, it will be able to see a lot more than just your friends’ info!
- App Status
This controls which apps can access your Facebook account and what they’re allowed to do with it. For example, if you enable an app to read your status updates, it will take anything you post on that app’s wall or in that app’s group and post it publicly everywhere else. Make sure you check the box next to something like “only me” if this is what you want!
Conclusion
Now you know how to adjust your privacy settings so that only the people you want to see your information can do so. Remember, Facebook is a public platform, and whatever you post can be found by anyone, so use these settings to be as discreet as possible!
