My wife created a facebook account and “Public Profile” for me a while back. My Public Profile uses my stage name, and as far as I could tell provided no visible link to my private profile using my real name.
But I started getting occasional friend requests from people who had seen me perform. Turns out, my wife used my business email (which is on my business cards) to open the facebook account. I believe people are looking me up with that email address.
For various reasons I do not want details on my private profile juxtoposed with my public persona. I don’t see a way to remove the original email address. I’ve added a new one, and am told that I can use the new one as my login. But I can’t seem to remove the original.
Is it possible? If the new email is set as my contact, can people still find my private profile using the original email address? How do I keep my personal profile truly seperate from the Public one?
You may wish to contact Facebook directly to ask the original email to be removed. Not exactly the same but I had to do that with MySpace. I originally used a legit email but a false name because I was not confident of the privacy issues. MySpace removed my account. They agreed to reinstate my account as long as I used legit information. FB may be able to remove the email addy on their end.
You should be able to remove the old email yourself.
Click on “Settings” -> “Account Settings”, then “Change” next to Email. You should be able to set the new one as your contact address and remove the old one.
I had tried that initially, but although it showed that I had selected the new address as my contact email, the “remove” button was only listed next to the new address. But after logging on and off, it finally reversed. It would allow me to delete the old one (but not the new). Just had to log off I guess. Thanks!
I find that very strange, as almost everyone I know on MySpace uses a fake name. It’s par for the course, and, unlike Facebook, using your real name is not in the Terms of Agreement (unless they’ve changed it again.) There really is a privacy issue, in that your (potential) employer is allowed to look it up and use anything on the profile to change your job situation.*
In fact, I actually still have my account where I used a fake name made up of two common nouns that are never names (like, say, Peanut Eater), and a drawing instead of a picture. It was a great way to see if the people who were adding me seriously wanted to be my friend, or would just add anybody, no matter how fishy their profile looked. I haven’t used it in a long while, but it’s still there. (I actually feel bad deleting it, as it seems that some people base their self-worth on how many “friends” they have on MySpace. I’m thinking of just scrambling the password so I can’t use it.)
My other account just uses my first name. MySpace can ask me for my last name all it wants, but it isn’t getting it.
*Also, if you are under 18, it’s probably safer to use a fake name, as the protection against potential child molesters has a fatal flaw: real child molesters are just going to lie about their age. Heck, the kids do it all the time. My underage cousin was listed at 99, and no one called her on it.
A few weeks ago I signed up on Facebook just out of curiosity; used a fake name and a gmail account that I used once to email my sister. After registering, I was presented with a list of potential friends; my sister, all three of her children, several of her sons ex-girlfriends, and several of my sister’s friends … sent me into a privacy freak out and I deleted the account.
They can only affect your privacy if you put private stuff on there. I really don’t mind. I heard from my “gang” from third grade, and a Norwegian boyfriend from 20 years ago. How else would I have found these folks?