A Summary of the new Facebook Privacy Controls
As
a result of concerns raised by users about Facebook's increasingly complicated
Privacy Settings Facebook are beginning to roll out their new and "improved" changes
to all users.
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A
Summary of the Key Changes, benefits and any possible implications to consider:
-
Users' privacy
settings are controlled from one central page now, which makes it significantly
easier to work out what to change and edit.
-
Hopefully this will make the process of sharing (or not!)
information on Facebook easier for both Young People and Adults
-
You can control if a profile can be found via public Search listings
(e.g. Google) by using the "Public search "option on
the Applications and Websites page controls. This controls whether people who
enter your name in a search engine will see a preview of your Facebook profile
(often a worry for professionals). It also controls whether things you've specifically chosen to
share with everyone show up in searches on and off Facebook.
-
-
You can hide your
interests (as well as other information such as your status,
relationships etc) as part of the "Basic Directory Information".
-
Previously your "Interests"
had been changed to a new system after the last privacy revamp, to be known as "connections"
and could not be set to friends only etc.
-
You control who can see the photos and videos
you're tagged in that appear on your profile. However, this simply limits who see
the tag, not the photo or video itself, so be aware that the owner of a photo (the
user who uploaded or posted it) can still share that photo with people you're
not friends with. The only way of
getting rid of any photos and videos is to report tem to Facebook (but be aware
they will only remove photos/videos which breach their terms and conditions) or
ask that the person who posted the content removes it.
-
If a photo or video is posted of someone under the age of 13, then
parents/carers can contact Facebook request for it to be removed. For more
information visit http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=831#!/help/?faq=17289
-
You can share
your information with friends, friends of friends or everyone, and Facebook
offers users' presets options to help you do that.
-
If you prefer,
you can still customise your settings in more detail (a more 'granular' approach
e.g. using Friends lists). Customise settings" displays a full list so you
can control the privacy level for each setting". This also is where you can
change your privacy controls for Photo Albums. All users should be aware that
each photo album needs to be controlled and the privacy for each album needs to
be set separately to "Friends only" etc.
-
With young people in particular the use of the term "Friends" may
not always mean "real world" friends so should be used with caution if strangers
are accepted onto any friends' lists.
-
Certain
Information will now ALWAYS be public: Name, Profile Picture, Gender and
Networks you are a member of. According to Facebook this is to make it
easier for your "real world" friends to find you.
-
This cannot be changed so this information, in particular profile pictures
will now need to be very carefully considered before uploading.
-
You can of course use a nickname for your real name, avoid
uploading photos you wouldn't want to share publicly as profile pictures, use avatars for profile pictures and don't
join any networks such as towns or schools etc.
-
You can hide your friends list; users can now choose to make friends lists private, so only your
friends can see who you are friends with. That means applications and search
engines etc will not be able to find out who your friends are.
-
This is a really good
tool for professionals who use Facebook personally as you cannot always control
what information is posted online by friends, family and colleagues. By hiding
your friends list, you can limit the possibility that your friends profiles may
accidentally share too much.
-
You can now opt
out of Applications.
-
You can now choose to
block all applications and games, etc, meaning no application requests, and
reducing levels of Spam and viruses. However it is unlikely many users will
chose this option as they will be unable to continue to play games such as
Farmville etc. For those who do wish to continue to use apps, then you can have
greater control over what information you share and what information your
friends can share about you.
- Block
Lists are easier to access and can be found on the same page as the
privacy settings. The block list lets you block people from interacting with you or
seeing your information on Facebook. You can also specify friends who you
want to ignore application invites from, and see a list of the specific
applications that you've blocked from accessing your information and
contacting you.
- This is a very useful tool to highlight to
all users, for example staff may wish to block young people etc from
contacting them and young people may wish to use this to block comments
and messages from online bullies.
- Instant Personalization is still opt-out. This is one
of the key things which prompted all of the recent criticism of Facebooks'
Privacy Settings. "Instant Personalization" is still
opt-out.
- Instant Personalization works by sharing information from your
Facebook profile with some "select partner sites" in order to personalise
the site for you. This only includes information that's already visible
to everyone.
- You
can turn off instant personalisation for specific sites or you can turn
it off completely from the Applications and Websites options. This will
prevent these partners from receiving your information through instant
personalisation, including what's visible to everyone.
-
Implications
for younger users (Minors)
-
Facebook state that "We are committed to
protecting minors who use Facebook." Until their eighteenth birthday, minors don't have public search
listings created for them and the visibility of their information is limited to
friends of friends and networks, even if they've chosen to make it available to
everyone. Again, as discussed above, this does not apply to name, profile
picture, gender and networks, which are visible to everyone so real-world friends
can recognise them. This is something that should be carefully considered and
discussed with younger users.
-
The age restriction for Facebook remains at 13. Facebook requires its users to be at least 13 years old before
they can create an account. Providing false information to create an account is
a violation of their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and underage
profiles reported to Facebook will be removed. However it is worth considering that there would be little to stop
young people setting up a new account, so it may consider that it would be better
for adults to know that underage young people have a profile and discuss safe online
use and behaviour with them monitor it rather than potentially drive any
incidents and concerns "underground".
These changes are currently being rolled out across the platform and
it is strongly recommended that users revisit their privacy settings and ensure
they understand how they work. Previous Privacy settings will be saved as they
currently exist. These new settings and any changes made will also cover previous/backdated content as well as any futurecontent and updates.
Facebook's privacy explanation (with full details) can be found at
http://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.php
The Facebook Safety Centre also helps explain how to use Facebook
and report any concerns http://www.facebook.com/help/?safety
I welcome any comments and insights and may post information etc
more once I've spent more time looking into the new Privacy Controls.
Rebecca