The Truth About Facebook Privacy

Recently there has been a lot of hubbub about Facebook privacy, the “wall garden” and how much info they’re you’re making public. Someone even published this nifty graphic:

Most of which isn’t actually true. Let me tell you all about it…

First of all, I did nothing special in writing this post because my privacy settings were already set. That means that even before all of the buzz and outrage generated by the F8 Conference, your information was available and out there. What I want to talk about is a few key things that you probably don’t know about or have the wrong idea about because of graphics like the one shown above. It might be helpful if you took a look at Facebook’s own Privacy Guide.

There are two profiles you should consider: the one that shows up in search engines, and the profile shown to people logged into Facebook. If you want to see how “Everyone” views your profile, you can do so here. “Everyone” is people who aren’t your friends or friends of friends. You have fine-grained control over your profile, as explained in the privacy guide linked about. You can essential make a different setting for each section of your Facebook profile, setting it for “Friends,” “Friends of Friends,” or “Everyone.” If that isn’t good enough, you can choose to customize the section down to the networks you’re a part of. You can also choose if you want to show up in search engines, and what friends can share about you. I would suggest you take an in-depth look at The Privacy Section for your profile.

Ultimately, people are getting mad because of how open your Facebook profile is ‘becoming’, but the truth of the matter is once you put it on the Internet, it’s out there no matter how private you think you’re making it. If you really want to keep it private, don’t post it. The next best thing (for Facebook anyway) is to take a good hard look at the privacy settings and privacy guide for Facebook and follow it closely.

Facebook Privacy Guide | Your Privacy Settings