I have toadmit, I am not really a facebook aficionado but I do concede that this is the way the world is going. I DO NOT like the attitude facebook takes with regard to privacy, and we have seen a lot of problems over the years… Everytime facebook changes their policy, we find ourselves having to change some very remote setting somewhere…
And, in September, 2011, it still hasn’t changed.
Do you like the new ticker? I have to admit, it’s cool for some things, but for everything you see someone do, they can see the same things you do–unless you have your privacy settings set correctly.
What is correctly?
Who knows. Only facebook knows what is truly behind their settings, and where they’re even hidden. But what I’ve found so far is that regardless of what privacy you had set before, now you have to do MORE to keep what little privacy you have left, safe!
So how do you do it?
Well, I’ve pretty much kept my (facebook) online presence reasonably quiet. But now it is screaming to everyone, briefly (and succinctly) all I can say is, change your settings again!
Ok, from what I’ve witnessed so far (and I’ll add to this post later), but for now:
click on the down arrow (top right screen), and
click on Privacy Settings
now you have to go down to “Apps and Websites” and click on “edit settings”.
At this point, you should see a “Apps you use” section. click on “edit settings” (again)…
Now, for EACH AND EVERY…. I’ll say that again… FOR EACH AND EVERY app you have installed in facebook, you MUST (I repeat) “MUST” go into each applications settings by clicking on the “Edit” button.
This time you are taken to an options screen and it is here the damage is done. Down on the bottom of the main area is a title: “App activity privacy”. Under this section there is an option that dictates who can see what from this application.
CHANGE THIS SETTING TO “ME ONLY”
Prior to the ticker, people only found this info if the “app” posted to your wall. NOW, that is not the case. Now, if you want to keep anything “private” on facebook, you have to hide it from everyone.
What is the problem here?
The problem is that, IF you choose Friends of Friends (or even just friends) for any setting, then anything your friends do (in relation to YOUR action) will be visible to everyone else. This includes the simple act of playing a facebook game. (Do you really want your boss to know you play poker when you didn’t want him to know? Well, if he is a friend of a friend of yours, he will…
UNLESS YOU CHANGE THIS SETTING!!!!
What you HAVE to do is change APP ACTIVITY PRIVACY to ME ONLY…
BUT to do that, you must first check the option to “CUSTOMISE” and then, in the next window, you should check “ME ONLY”
This is only going to half protect you from me, but really, you should do it…
Facebook security should really be called Facebook INSECURITY, because, really, there isn’t any!