Facebook has rolled out its new privacy settings for all of its users. The new settings are supposed to make it easier and simpler to control your information, but the changes are drawing a mix of criticism and praise.
The new privacy controls include some great and not-so-great changes, but here are five privacy issues you should know about in order to be safe from 350 million people !
Search Se ttings
If you don’t want search engines like Google and Bing to index your profile, make sure you adjust your search privacy settings. Go to Settings>Privacy Settings>Search and if the “Allow indexing” box is checked, then search engines will be able to index your information.
Password protection
Facebook has added a new layer of protection for changing your privacy settings. Under the new policy you will have to enter your password whenever you want to change your privacy settings. This is a smart move, and quite a common policy with other Web services.
What is public information and what is not?
Facebook is also changing what it deems to be publicly available information, with almost no recourse for the user to control this, a change that personally I do not fancy. Information that is deemed as publicly accessible includes your profile picture, friends list, fan pages, gender, geographic region, and networks (school, work, etc.).
Friends List
Although your friends list is technically under public information, you can still control who sees it. But controls for this information are found on your Facebook ‘Profile page’ -- not your ‘Privacy Settings’. If you want to restrict who sees your friends list within Facebook, click on the pencil icon next to your Friends widget, below your profile picture, and uncheck the box that says “Show my friends on my profile.”
Hyper Control
While Facebook is taking away some control over publicly available information, you are getting extreme control over other parts of your Facebook profile. Now you can restrict who sees your shared content on a per-post basis. Don’t want certain friends to see your latest update? No problem. Need to keep those photos of you at the bar away from your co-workers? You can do that, too. Facebook’s new privacy settings are a combination of improved and simpler controls over some information, and loosened restrictions on others.
Of course, if you don not want some of that information to appear, you can always delete it from Facebook. Facebook’s privacy controls may not be perfect, but they will urge users to think even harder about what they are sharing on Facebook, and ultimately that may be a good thing. Kudos to Facebook ! |
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