I keep close tabs on public sentiment around all things Facebook and particularly privacy. As you may know Facebook had a bit of a false start about 6-months ago when they released their Terms of Service (TOS) to an uproar of criticism and outrage. Facebook quickly retreated and decided to solicit and consider some user feedback before revising the TOS again.
The latest privacy policies and settings included some positive revisions thanks to Canada’s Privacy Commission and a must read report from the Commissioner. They also came with an open letter from Mark Zuckerberg.
Even with these new policies in place there are a number of items that are cause for concern, especially for the average user who wouldn’t know to be concerned, or if they did, wouldn’t know where to go to manage those settings. For example, you can see from the screens hot below that the majority of the default settings open you info up to "everyone" meaning you have modify the settings to "old settings" yourself.
How to Manage Your Privacy Settings
I have highlighted one particular item below and will save the rest for a longer post. Your personal information on Facebook is now searchable not only within Facebook but can also be indexed and made publicly available by search engines like Google and Bing. You can however, modify or prevent this within your settings. Here’s how:
- Go to "Settings". At the top of the page you will see this notice. "Worried about privacy? Your information is safe. There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile."
- Go down to Privacy and click on "Manage".
- Click on "Search".
- Uncheck "Allow Indexing".
Your done. There’s also a button on this page labeled "Preview my Profile…" that will enable you to see what others can see when viewing your profile.
If you have any concerns or would like to know more feel free to drop me an email. We also offer in-depth work shops on Facebook marketing that include sections on managing all your settings from Linked Accounts to Notifications and Privacy.
These tips and more are available in How to Attract 3,000 Facebook Fans in 30 Days, The Ultimate Facebook Pages
