Facebook: Privacy Issues You May Not Think About

Privacy issues have resurfaced with Facebook over the past few weeks, and Linda covers it all this week – including issues that have taken a back seat to the main Facebook privacy settings.

Can You Ever Quit Facebook?

While I was happily writing on and on about WordPress over the past few weeks, Facebook went through some bad public relations regarding their users' privacy issues. You did not hear anything from me about those issues, as I go by Timothy Leary's adage, "Think for yourself and question authority."  In other words, about every three days I go into my privacy settings at Facebook to make sure that nothing has been added or altered.

You need to do the same. Starting now. Go to "Account > Privacy Settings" and then take a look at the image below:

I use the "Custom" feature that allows me to customize my privacy settings. As you can see above, I'm fairly private about my Facebook contents, as I allow only my friends to view those contents. And, I even protect my Email addresses and IM further, shielding that information from most of my "friends." But, you can do more, and this is where a lot of people screw up, as they may forget to check the "Basic Directory Information" and that link directly above the "Sharing on Facebook" privacy settings. If you click on that link for "View Settings," this is what you'll see:

The settings above include everything that shows on your public profile. For a while, I couldn't figure out why people could not find me on Facebook until I realized I had the "Search for me on Facebook" set to "Friends of Friends." Now, everyone can find me, but only friends of friends can send friend requests to me. Of course, if I met you outside Facebook and we became friends, I would be talking to you via email before you ever got to the point where you'd consider Facebook connectivity. Frankly, I don't bring it up, as I decided a while back that my Facebook entity is entirely personal and private.

But, if you do become a friend and you aren't a friend of any of my friends, then I would find you first to "friend" you so that you could friend me back in that fashion. Now, if you and I both have settings that don't allow me to find you, and you cannot find me, then we might be in trouble. However, I've never encountered that difficulty yet. Always a first time, and I'm waiting for that to happen...when it does, I'll let you know what to do.

Once you set your profile settings above, you can click "Preview my Profile" to see how your page looks to "everyone" outside your circle of friends. But, the only way to REALLY see how your profile looks is to log out and then conduct a search for yourself. In my case, my page looks like this:

The image above shows the flukes of a sperm whale in the Gulf of Mexico. Since I spent 1/3 of my life on the Gulf Coast, I'm using my Facebook page to vent my anger and frustration. My friends all know that I'm going through some issues, and they're supportive. But, do I want the general public to know how I feel yet? No – so that information is private.

Since I don't show my profile photo, some people may not know that this is me...and that's fine, too, for now. My LinkedIn profile and other social media tools provide that information to viewers, so I'm keeping this page to myself. You, too, can do the same...or not.