Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this. Last night I had a case where a 1st friend posts something, I comment on it, and then a 2nd friend reacts to my comment. These people shouldn’t know each other, and Facebook says they aren’t friends. I might expect this if I were on somebody’s “favorite friend” (read: stalker) list, but I generally don’t think that’s the case.
This is a little worrisome because some co-workers are liking posts that I wouldn’t expect they could see. It hasn’t been anything too crazy, just semi-unhinged political rants (which nobody with good taste ought to like), but I worry about the wrong person seeing the wrong thing. Guess I’ll need to dial it back.
I’ve noticed people who aren’t my friends have begun commenting on my posts. I guess they changed one of the defaults to let anybody post. I’ll have to look into that… gotta keep those kids offa my lawn.
If your friend’s post is set to Public or Friends, your other Friends can see that post and your comment.
Now would be a good time to go into your Security and Privacy settings and make sure they are set as you like. Likewise, if you’ve given any apps permission to access your Facebook I’d rethink that.
If Person A, your friend, posts something that’s public, anyone can see it, even if they aren’t friends with them. So you can see it, and if you comment or like, your friends might see it. There’s nothing YOU can do to change who can see your activity on Person A’s post, as the security level is set on the post itself. If Person A posted the same thing but limited it to their friends, you could still see it and comment on it, but your friends wouldn’t see your activity and couldn’t join the conversation (unless they also happen to be friends with Person A).
If your friend comments or likes another one of their friend’s posts that is set to Public it can show up in your newsfeed, even if you’re not friends with the other person.
This is creepy as balls. I’m constantly hiding “Friend liked this” and “Friend commented on this” posts because it feels like an invasion of stranger’s privacy. I’m also careful to not comment or like things that are set to Public so my actions won’t show up in my friend’s newsfeeds.
There are add-ons for most browsers that clean up your Facebook feed as much as you like (but don’t replace privacy or security settings, of course); I have Firefox and use Fluff-Buster Plus - I don’t see Facebook News or who’s on Chat or game feeds or sports feeds or who liked what. It is wonderful.
I understand the cases where Person B could see my action. IF they were aware of it, IF, someone had directed their attention to it.
Case 1 - a somewhat-close acquaintance who I know may have been stalking my activity feed. I understand how stalkers would do this.
Case 2 - a normal dude I know who doesn’t give 2 shits what I do online, and we have no social overlap outside work, yet he replies ‘haha’ to something I said in a separate corner of facebook. (in his defense, it was a funny thing, but why did it pop up in his radar? I’ll have to ask next time I see him.
Like others have said if the post you commented on was set to public, your friends all got a notice in their newsfeeds about your comment. They could have seen this either directly in their newsfeeds or in the little activity ticker up at the top right above the chat contacts. There is no way to prevent this other than not commenting on posts that are set to public.
Had the original post you commented on been set to ‘friends only’ then your comment would not be noted in the newsfeeds of your friends unless they were also friends with the person who made the post.
It popped up in his News Feed b/c that’s how his settings are - Friends Feed; he sees his Friends reactions, he can click on it to see what they reacted to. You can set your News Feed up for Friends Feed, Most Recent, Top Stories (the Facebook default b/c it can include ads), and Photo Feed.
This has now happened to me 4 times today, with completely different combinations of unrelated friends. Either Facebook has decided that my insights are interesting and valuable, or they’ve secretly shredded some bit of their security/visibility options without first informing us.
Again, if you comment on someone’s post, and that post is set to “Public” (indicated by a little globe icon on the post) your comment will be shown to every single person in your friends list via their newsfeed and the activity ticker.
It’s not just that it would be theoretically visible to them if they stumbled across it, which it would, but that they will actually receive a notification that you commented on a post.
When you log in to FB don’t you notice newsfeed items like “Joe Smith commented on a post.” even when you aren’t friends of the person whose post they commented on? Your friends see the same thing about you when they log in to FB.
As far as I know it’s always been that way, or at least for a very long time.
Some of them were, no doubt. Some of them were personal timeline stuff. Some of it was like, I happened to react to facebook/crazyliberalrants and it got a response from some stodgy conservative who would definitely not be reading that.
I think there’s something with the permissions that I don’t understand, and I think also there might be some weak stalking as well. I’ll ask the parties that I’m not certain about (when I see them back in the office, in 3 months or so).