Comments on: Quick Tutorial: Changing Facebook Privacy Settings

By: Greg Pincus

Greg Pincus — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:25:37 +0000

Hi, Ray – this tutorial is almost two years old, and in Facebook time, that’s eons. They’ve “redesigned” the interface a few times since this tutorial. The basic ideas, however, are the same. What you want to do now is to follow the first few steps of this newer tutorial (http://www.thehappyaccident.net/quick-tutorial-adjusting-facebook-privacy-settings-for-face-recognition-photo-tagging/) through the Customize Settings part. Then you can change the settings on all the things you share as well as the things others can share in regards to you.
Greg Pincus´s last [type] ..Quick Tutorial- Adjusting Facebook Privacy Settings for Face Recognition Photo Tagging

By: Ray

Ray — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:17:45 +0000

My settings pages look nothing like this. I can approach from Profile, Privacy. Or Account, Account Settings, Privacy Settings. Or Account, Privacy Settings. All land on the same page and it doesn’t look anything like what you’re describing.

By: Social Graph Series 4: Moving Beyond Social Privacy to Semantic Web | Curly Braces

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:38:47 +0000

[...] make sure that our profile picture does not suddenly pop in websites that we do not know. Facebook privacy settings have some great features to allow us to block certain content to certain people or group of [...]

By: Greg Pincus

Greg Pincus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:21:51 +0000

Linda – under settings->privacy->profile (the same as in the tutorial above), you can control most of that. If you were to type in my FB page, you would not see how many friends I have, because I have the Friends privacy setting set so that only friends and people in my network can see the list.

I allow some information about me to be seen by “strangers” but most of that is controlled by me. That said, there are pictures of a few friends of mine along with my name. I am not sure if that can be turned off, but if you want that off as well, I urge you to play with all the settings and see what you can do.

For one way to check how your own account looks to strangers, you can log out of FB or open up a second browser and bring up your own page.

By: linda

linda — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:48:32 +0000

hi, i want to know how do i not allow other people that i did not add on face book, to not look at how many friends i have and to look at my profile? all i want is for them is to find me and add me as a friend, not to look at my details.

By: Greg Pincus

Greg Pincus — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 04:40:03 +0000

It is confusing, though you have a good handle on it. Friends of friends does cover friends. Networks would include, yes, anyone in the Los Angeles network.

The home page is how YOU view your friends’ updates and can click on all the requests you’ve been sent. It is NOT how others view your information, however. If you visit me (http://www.facebook.com/gregpincus), you see the information I allow friends to see. That depends on the settings I’ve chosen for all that information (basic info, personal info, education, etc.). That is how others will see you if they type in your facebook URL.

When you’re on the Profile privacy settings, at the top is a box where you can type in a friend’s name and see how they’d view your profile so you can see what you’re revealing. As for updates…

If you allow your updates to be public, those appear on your friends’ “home” pages mixed in with the other feeds they get. I see your updates on my home page, not my profile page, for example. I can also go to your profile page and click on your wall to see what’s there, too.

I hope that it a bit clearer… but if not, ask again!

By: Hannah Ruth Wilde

Hannah Ruth Wilde — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 03:34:53 +0000

Dear Greg, thank you for this. I’m still perplexed. I can’t get into my head the differences between the choices. And are they exclusive – like for example – if you choose friends of friends, does that also cover friends? I would guess so. But if you choose network and friends – then that means if I chose Los angeles network, it would be friends and anyone in los angeles? Also, how can I understand the settings as they may differ from the home page and the profile page. So, people only see my home page if they are a friend and I’ve checked friend for that. But then I don;t understand about the feed and the profile…I don’t know if you can straighten me out….ha!
Hannah

By: Greg Pincus

Greg Pincus — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:46:17 +0000

It’s true that you need to protect yourself… though in the case of animal cruelty, I’m glad that she hadn’t since it helped stop the abuse!

The assumption I make is that is that everything I do online could be discovered if someone was dead set on doing so. Still, fixing privacy settings the way I want them does prevent many possible, unhappy accidents.

By: BookMoot

BookMoot — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 01:56:23 +0000

Interesting article in the Dallas Morning News few whiles ago about a woman who was convicted of cruelty to animals. Part of the evidence AND fodder for the media accounts were her Facebook posts which were accessible to one and all. Even her FB pictures were “Public Domain” and used as part of the coverage in the media.

As a librarian and a mom, I warn one and all that if they say it on line, it can end up in the paper some day. In this case, it did. Lock up your settings, folks.