Saturday 22 May 2010

Facebook Privacy

Facebook used to be fairly private, but that’s been changing for a few years. Get the lowdown on Spark, with technological info.
 It tells us, in part...
But lately, privacy issues with Facebook have come to the fore. There’s a saying that you shouldn’t put anything in an email that you wouldn’t be comfortable seeing on the front page of the Globe and Mail. 

As of today, there is a NEW PRIVACY setting called "InstantPersonalization" that shares data with non-Facebook websites and it isautomatically set to "Allow." Goto Account > Privacy Settings >Applications and Websites > Instant Personalization > EditSettings, and uncheck "Allow"....BTW, if your friends don't do this, they will be sharing information about you.

I think it behooves us to refrain from putting any info on the 'net that we wouldn't want an employer or client or family member to read! We have to balance our eagerness to share photos with friends with putting up photos that a member of the public might find offensive. I was just contacted to teach a course by someone who checked out my resume on-line. I have little to hide, after all I wrote my book! 


Some people are wondering if that should now be extended to Facebook. Employers have used it to screen out job applicants and people have lost disability insurance benefits and even their jobs because of what they put on their Facebook pages.

While you can control who can see most of your information on Facebook (not to mention the information you choose to put there), recent changes to Facebook’s privacy policy have made the lines very blurry. According to PC World, a computer magazine, it now takes going through 50 settings and 170 options to safeguard your Facebook privacy. 

How to fix Facebook's new privacy settings

2 comments:

T and S said...

I didn't know this about the facebook privacy setting, thanks for sharing this...Thomas

Grandma K said...

Oh, I think that anything you put in "print" on the internet - anywhere, you need to think very long and hard about it. You never know who will/may read it.

These kids that post provocative pictures as well as pictures of themselves doing things that are not of a great value may find all that coming back when they are applying to a school or trying to get a job.

I always assume what I write will be read by others than the intened audience!