I don’t know how much of my information is viewable to everyone now. A lot of people migrated to Facebook from Myspace a couple years ago because it was considered the more private of the two. It was harder to browse for people, your info was automatically secure from non-friends, etc. Now I have no idea what’s public and what’s private. Every website I go to now (including this one), has Facebook “share” links built-in. When I try to look at my own profile, it pops up a window that I can’t get out of that wants me to either “link” everything in my profile or delete it. I have no clue what it’s trying to get me to link all this stuff to.
It’s nice to have something like FB to keep up with old friends and co-workers and family, especially out-of-state people, but this is getting ridiculous.
A simple Google search of my name and facebook shows that I don’t even show up in the first three pages of results if you search for my name in Facebook. What exactly is making you believe it’s not still private?
As always, you can control your Facebook privacy settings on several levels.
Many things come up when I Google my name, but no Facebook. Even when I Google “FIRSTNAME LASTNAME FACEBOOK,” nada. I am very active on Facebook, but I control my security settings pretty tightly.
All it wants to do is to take your interests that you’ve selected (tv shows, movies, music, etc) and put them in a link form on your own profile page. It doesn’t change the privacy setting you’ve already selected, it simply changes the way your profile page looks.
Not sure what the concern about privacy is about, like Diosa mentions above… that’s all up to you.
If you want to disable the ability of search engines to find your page, go to Account > Privacy Settings > Search, and uncheck the option to Allow Public Search Results. In a couple weeks, your info will no longer be available on Google.
Oddly enough, I’ve never unchecked that option, but I’m in the same boat as Maiira. Even clicking “Show more from this site” only showed me a couple more people with my name, and a bunch of people with similar names.
Also, while you’re in Privacy settings, you might as well look for other things you don’t want shown. There’s even a “Preview My Profile” button so you can see exactly what information other people can see.
You beat me to it! Was just coming in to post that link. I’ve gone through my settings several times thoroughly, or so I thought, and going through that tutorial, I still found some things that I’d missed.
I like connecting with old friends- I’ve found people I haven’t communicated with in literally 40 years! There’s a whole group of people from my old elementary school and I never would have connected with them otherwise, so I do like being on Facebook for that reason (and an easy way to keep up with my now-grown nieces and nephews). And I really don’t post anything that couldn’t be made public. It’s just the idea that Facebook hides all the ways in which they can share your info and being exposed to more SPAM, etc. that I don’t like.
I guess you just have to be vigilant about checking your privacy settings, as things do change often, and understand the internet is not exactly a private place. Something people should certainly know by now, but I guess when you’re in a comfortable environment, it’s a little easier to forget.
And why would he?! It’s a social networking site that makes money by constantly growing (and thereby selling advertising). If everyone kept their details totally private no links would be made and growth would cease.
Facebook isn’t just selling advertising, it’s selling the personal information entered by its users. The more tightly a user controls their privacy settings, the less they can sell it.
I’m not really worried about people finding my info. My name turns up lots of google hits and did already before I got fb. I’m more bothered by who they’re selling my info to, and why all of the sudden one site seems to be trying to take over my whole browsing experience. I’d be just as bothered if there were suddenly SDMB links at Facebook. I don’t want Facebook to know what I’m doing after I navigate away from there.
For those worried about Facebook’s privacy, there’s Diaspora coming up. Claims to be an ‘open-source social network where users are in control of their privacy’. Whether it will live up to it, only time will tell.
The other day I got a pop up that said: “Select which of these links you want linked to your profile.” In the box it had a list of about 20 different websites. MY only options were to select them all or select individually.
Note that there was not an option for: DON’T LINK ANY OF THEM TO MY FREAKING PROFILE!!.
So anyway, I chose “Select individually” didn’t chose any of them, scrolled down to the bottom of the page and hit save changes. Then I get another pop up screen that says “You didn’t select any of the links. Please make your selection then hit submit.”
Of course that was always the point. IT surprises me that so many people didn’t realize it. The fun thing to do is to frustrate them as much as possible, giving false information, and restricting it as much as you can.
I still don’t get applications, though. They get my info as soon as I sign up. Why do they go out of their way to make me have to visit their application multiple times? Most don’t serve their own ads or anything…
I got that too. What bothered me was that the links were for TV shows, movies, and music that I like, but which I’ve never once mentioned on Facebook, in my profile or anywhere else. How does Facebook know that I like Dwight Yoakam, Shane, Mad Men, The Wire, Supernatural, Dexter, and The Searchers?