Facebook: Important Privacy and Tagging Updates

Do you sometimes feel like Cyber-Space has over taken us? It’s true that the internet has brought us many great conveniences: knowledge at the click of a button; telecommuting flexibility; online college courses; e-commerce nirvana; and contact with friends and family 24/7. Through a simple Google search, details of our private life are publicly available to the masses. The cyber-surge has come at such a frightening speed, and changes so quickly, that questions about personal privacy abound. Facebook, one of the biggest social networks out there, has tuned into that concern and continues to develop privacy options to keep your information safe. In his recent article, “Facebook Makes Massive Privacy & Tagging Changes,” Ben Parr covers some important changes that Facebook is currently rolling out.

The two major changes Facebook has made can be found here:

1. In the user’s profile.

2. In the user’s feed Privacy Changes in the User’s Profile

• You can now share your personal interests (music, movies, activitities…etc.) with select groups and imdividuals. You have the option to share it with “Public,” “Friends,” or “Custom.” Custom simply mean you choose who of your friends can see the information.

• If you want a clear picture of what groups can see, or even a specific person, you can click the “View Profile As” button that is in the upper right hand corner of your profile page and fill in a name. Now, if I want to see what John Doe sees when he views my personal page, I can. Tag. You’re it! • Have you ever gotten tagged in a photo where your mouth is full of food, or you are simply not camera ready? Some pictures simply should not be shared publicly. (And you’re probably still wondering why your friend thought it WAS OK to share…!) This is perhaps the best feature because Facebook is giving YOU control over which photos can be shared, as well as locations and posts that you are tagged in. • You also have the ability to tag someone in a photo without “friending” them first. However, that person must approve being tagged before the photo can be shared. Suppose you were at a going away party and met someone for the first time. Later you discover they are in a few pictures from the party. Once you have their permission, you can tag them in the photo, even if you’re not friends on Facebook.

• You can now tag or “check-in” yourself to anywhere, instead of specified locations.

• You can also “check-in” to something nearby where you are, or you can tag yourself somewhere that you were hours before. Just use the map marker circle above and tell people where you are. You even tag locations of photo albums.

Now You See Me. Now You Don’t

• Another great new feature is the filter, which allows you to control who sees your status updates. Similar to that of your interesting, you can now decide whether “Everyone,” “Friends of Friends,” “Friends,” or “Custom” can view your status updates. This might be helpful because you could advertise a huge get together and want everyone to see it, or you could post information about a small gathering and only want specified invitees to see it. This is where lists come in really handy. If you haven’t been using lists, you may want to check this out. On your home page, click on friends, in the far left under Favorites.   When you click on “Manage Friend List,” you come to this page: Here you can add friends to lists you’ve already created or make a new list. Then when you choose whom to share your post with, choose Custom and start typing the name of the list. Choices will automatically come up so you can choose who sees this particular post. Do you have any questions?  Ask away in the comments box below.  And don’t forget to “like” our post if you found it helpful.  Thanks!