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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Six New Ways Facebook Is Stealing Your Privacy And What You Can Do About It

1. Timeline Timeline makes its easy for people to search back through your old facebook posts. That could expose private matters embarrassing photos that you've long forgotten. To hide posts you don't want to be seen, hold your cursor over the post and click the pencil con that appears in the upper right hand corner. Then click "hide from Timeline" or "Delete".

2. Facebook Apps Some facebook apps dig deep into your data even accessing info you have designated as private like your religion, political leanings and sexual preferences. So make sure you read the privacy polices carefully before signing up for an app.The  free tool available at  https://www.facebook.com/Privacyscore will help you evaluate the privacy policies of the apps you use.

3.Facebook "Like" Buttons Each time you click on a "like" button on a website, you alert your interests to your facebook friends and its advertising partners. And if you're a facebook user and you visit a web page that has a "like" button, facebook will record you visit to that page if you don't click "like". One way to prevent facebook from knowing where you go online is to set your web browser to block all cookies. You can also use the "In Private Browsing" mode in Internet Explorer, the "Incognito " mode in Google Chrome,  and the "Private Browsing" mode in Firefox and Safari. There are also free plug ins to stop facebook from following you such as http://webgraph.com/resources/facebookblocker/

4. Social Readers If you signed up for sites like The Washington Post it will tell your facebook friends that articles you read on the site. So if you've signed up for a social reader app, then delete it. Just click the lock icon in the upper right hand corner and select"See More Settings" then choose "apps" on the left. Locate the app, click "X" and follow the directions to delete.

5. Photo & Video Tags Some tags can let others see you in unflattering and unprofessional situations. To untag yourself from unflattering photos, hold your cursor over the post and click on the pencil icon. Select "Report/Remove Tag", then follow directions to remove it. Then enable review of all future photos you're tagged in before they appear on Timeline. Click the lock icon in the upper right, the "See More Settings" and select "Timeline and Tagging". Then click "edit" next to "Review posts friends  tag you in before they appear on your Timeline, " and click "Enabled" on the drop down menu. 

6. Facebook Friends If several of your facebook friends list potentially risky or unhealthy activities, a potential insurer, college admissions office or employer might conclude you also enjoy such behavior. You might consider removing these people from your friends list or make your friends  list private.  Just click on your name in upper right hand corner, then click "Friends", the "Edit" and select "Only Me" from the drop down menu.