How does this Facebook security thing happen?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I just saw something odd in Facebook, and am wondering about the relevant settings.

Imagine 3 people, all with Facebook accounts. Joe has all his privacy settings set to “friend only” - nothing is set to “everyone” or “friends of friends.”

Joe is friends with Katie and George. Katie and George are NOT friends.

Katie posts an amusing picture on her wall; Joe comments on it. An hour or so later, George also comments on it.

So how did George, who is NOT friends with Katie, see & comment on the picture? Am I right to assume that:

1 - Katie has “friends of friends” set for her wall and comment privileges

2 - George was able to see Katie’s picture and Joe’s comment because… it showed up on his status feed because Joe commented on it and Katie’s privacy settings?

Is that correct? Because then it follows that if Person A comments on Person B’s wall, that comment is visible to anyone who is friends with Person A, regardless of Person A’s own privacy settings? That doesn’t seem quite right, but then again, I’m well aware that Facebook is anything but private.

Just trying to get my head around all this. Facebook is scary.

2

I just went to your profile and clicked on “Athena commented on Friend X’s status” for two different people and was able to see your comment and all other comments on those people’s statues.

But I am also able to view the entire wall of both of those people. So they have very lax security settings.

FWIW, photo albums have different settings than the wall - each album has its own security setting. I just viewed a picture of a friend in a non-friend’s album and I could view the entire album, but not the guy’s other albums. I also did not have a comment box available under the picture.

If you post on someone’s wall or on a picture, that post falls under that person’s security settings, not yours.

You can definitely post stuff to people if you are not friends and their security settings are set as such.

3

Was Joe tagged in the photo?

4

Interesting. I assume you could also comment as well, if you wanted to?

Nope. Totally random joke photo, something off the net, no people in it at all.

5

You can tag anyone you want in a photo, a lot of people tag all their friends on joke photos so they will look at them.

6

Considering Facebook has been caught out lying again about protecting privacy, why should you be surprised?

7

I seem to remember that I can see my friends’ comments on other people’s photos or notes if it is announced on the friend’s wall, but unless that person allows Friends of Friends to post, I can’t respond.

But I’m not sure about that. I just have Facebook as an RSS feed.