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Facebook privacy: What should you do?
On Monday, a story of mine in Life & Arts section of the Austin American-Statesman will discuss Monday’s Quit Facebook Day, a movement to protest privacy changes on Facebook. As of this writing 23,425 people have pledged to quit the social networking service.
It sounds like a lot of people until you factor in that Facebook is on its way to having 500 million users.
But even if the numbers are low, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be concerned about what Facebook may be doing with your personal data. Here’s a few ideas on what you should do (if anything) if you’re worried about your Facebook account.
Option 1: Do nothing, watch what you post
Many (myself included) are of the opinion that if you’re extremely paranoid about who sees your photo, hometown or status updates on Facebook, perhaps Facebook isn’t the right place for you to be in the first place.
Whatever promises a social network makes about how it’ll use or display your data, you always have to assume that anything you post online has the potential to be exposed and to go public. Does that make it your fault? No. But you should always be aware of the worst-case scenario that anything you share online could end up being shared more than you anticipated.
So, instead of trying to make sense of Facebook’s privacy controls you could instead remove anything questionable from your profile and watch what you post in the future, assuming it could be shared with anyone. Or you could decide that a lot your personal information is not really dangerous or interesting enough for your privacy to be violated. This is not a state of mind for everyone, but it seems like it’s a view that’s becoming increasingly common.
Option 2: Use Facebook’s privacy controls to limit who sees what on your profile
On Wednesday, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to give users an option for simpler privacy controls.
The video below explains this in detail and gives you an idea of how to set your privacy controls on Facebook:
If you’re still confused, Lifehacker has a pretty good guide to the new settings as well.
Option 3: Quit Facebook
If it all sounds like too much to take, you could also close our your Facebook account completely. This sounds simple, but there’s actually one thing you need to know if you plan to leave Facebook.
Shutting your Facebook account takes 14 days. From the moment you delete your account (follow that link to start the process), you have two weeks to change your mind.
Unfortunately, if you interact with Facebook in any way, from following a link to a Facebook page to engaging in a Facebook chat, you run the risk of interrupting the account deletion process and having to start over.
This Facebook page explains the danger and offers more information on how to permanently delete your account.
You can get even more information in this CNET/CNN article, which answers questions including what the difference is between deleting and deactivating your Facebook account.
And then there’s the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, which assists you in leaving not only Facebook, but Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn.
Got more questions? Post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.
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Comments
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By Sherry Lowy
May 31, 2010 4:26 PM | Link to this
Somehow, the # of people (including me) putting up with what we've just experienced with Facebook reminds me of what we've got going on with the American leadership and government.
All along, from the beginning, if we read the actual agreement fine print, Facebook has owned, along with the right to change pretty much anything, any time - ALL our info.
AND..for me, at least, it was fun, interesting, and engaging just to "trust" that I along with the rest of us were mostly, mostly "in good hands."
Haven't we for the most part too often elected (or failed to vote in some cases) then gone along with whatever -- without providing any sort of self-responsible oversight along the way?
Ahhh..but for a while I thought maybe that was just an American thing we'd settled into - being too busy with our lives to think much about our privacy factors online.
Well...to get to practicalities: 1) i've totally stopped selecting Facebook Connect, or Facebook (anything) as a verification link to any other web feature or url; 2) i've severely reduced posting on FB; 3) I'm "uploading" nothing other than maybe an occasional, mostly public photo; 4)I've lost trust and don't anticipate regaining it.
To deactivate, I'm waiting for the next great app to appear to replace it, then I'm minimalizing all at FB permanently, and simply leaving the account active but dormant from there.
However, I realize I'm in the vast minority - and those of us paying attention (now) will only represent a ripple in this vast ocean FB has become. I'm sad about it though - I'll miss the camaraderie, the learning, and the community FB represents.