Consider the following: the amount of information Facebook offers to anyone on the Internet is now greater than the amount of information it keeps private. To put it another way, there were approximately 1.8 billion Internet users in 2009, and every single one may have access to your name, your gender, your wall posts, your picture, your photos, your friends, your interests and your networks. All of this information is available with Facebook’s default privacy settings.
This is no accident. Facebook’s profits are built on the backs of advertising and demographics data, both of which are more effective with a greater amount of public information. Knowing this, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have waged a calculated campaign to fatten their bottom dollar by slowly publicizing an ever-larger chunk of your profile.
You were never asked about these changes: the switches were flipped, the user agreement was changed and Facebook hoped you wouldn’t care. It makes them more money if you don’t.
Facebook also “addressed privacy concerns” by adding not one, but ten, privacy menus, each of which can be used to regain control of your privacy–if you have the time to find them, figure them out and configure all of them. Most don’t, and Facebook likes it that way. It makes them more money.
If you aren’t down with broadcasting your life to the entire Internet, then it’s time to take control of your profile. The following ten steps will show you the way.
Step 1: Connections
As of April 19, 2010, any activities, interests, music, books, movies or shows you list in your profile automatically adds your name to community pages for those items, which anybody on Facebook can see. Even if you choose to hide this information on your profile, it will still be available to Facebook’s businesses partners, other websites, advertisers and Facebook apps.
The only way to make sure that you’re not airing your interests to the general public is to strip your profile bare of any entries in these categories. To do this, edit your profile’s likes and interests section to match the picture below.
CAUTION: Pressing the “Like” button on a Facebook group or a web page could automatically create one of these connections. If you want to retain your privacy, don’t blow it by adding yourself to these public pages!
Step 2: Instant Personalization
Beginning April 22, 2010, Facebook started making the public bits of your profile available to websites for “personalization.” Put simply, Facebook now allows participating companies to dig through your profile so they can automatically configure their website to match your interests. For example, the streaming music site Pandora.com can peruse your favorite artists to configure radio stations when you visit.
Three sites have access to this feature for now: Pandora.com, Docs.com and Yelp.com. More are definitely coming, though, and none of them should be able to peek at or profit off of your personal information.
Click here to access the Instant Personalization menu and then configure it as in the image below.
Step 3: Sharing via friends
You might be surprised to learn that the browsing habits of your Facebook friends can spread your information far and wide.
Here’s how it works: any Facebook application or Facebook-connected website used by your friends has permission to rifle through the public bits of your profile. This breach of privacy is enabled by default on Facebook, meaning your wall posts, relationships, photos, religious and political views are widely available, just to name a few.
To put your personal details back in your hands, access Facebook’s friend sharing menu and configure it according to the picture below.
Step 4: Friends, Tags and Connections
By default, Facebook publicly shares every shred of personal information except for your contact information and your birthday. Your interests, friends, wall, photos, profile picture, gender, current city, hometown and more are free for the taking.
To throw the deadbolt on your deets, access the Friends, Tags and Connections menu and match it up to the settings below.
Step 5: Take yourself out of advertisements
Facebook hasn’t (yet) entered the business of selling your info to third-party advertisers, but Facebook is more than happy to use it for custom advertisements directed at you and your friends.
Worse yet, Facebook doesn’t seem opposed to the idea of shipping your info off to third-party advertisers someday. Seen right, Facebook’s advertising privacy menu offers an option to block personal information from being used in Facebook advertising, but it will also block third-party advertisers from using it if such a thing is “allowed in the future.”
If you’re not hip to having your info siphoned to make a few bucks for someone else, check the Facebook Ads section and set it to match the picture shown right.
NOTE: This setting won’t disable advertisements on Facebook, but at least they won’t prey on your interests any more. Instead, you’ll get to experience the joy of the many weird, random advertisements that Facebook has to offer. Awesome!
Step 6: Put your contact info on lockdown
Facebook is actually pretty good at limiting access to your contact information, but it’s still a great idea to be absolutely certain that it’s on lockdown.
To do that, hit up Facebook’s Contact Information privacy menu and configure it as shown in the image below.
NOTE: Our Facebook profile can be discovered by anyone on Facebook, as can the website we’ve provided for that section of our profile (we’re a public .com, after all). If you don’t want that to happen, switch the website dropdown to “Only Friends” and the add me as a friend dropdown to “Friends of Friends.” That’s as secure as you can get.
Step 7: Lock your photos
Facebook makes all of your photos available by default, which we can all agree may not be the best in this age of alcoholic revelry.
If you’re not ready to let your boss see you dual-wielding bottles of Jack while rocking out in a toga and a foam sombrero, head to Facebook’s photo privacy and match the settings with our picture below.
Step 8: Personal Information and Posts
Facebook’s default privacy settings publish your wall and most of your personal info for the world to see.
If you’d rather 7 billion people didn’t see your wall post about the assholes that stuck spoons in your mouth when you passed out on the couch, well, it’s probably best that you visit Facebook’s Personal Information and Posts section to reel that stuff in. Match it up with the settings below, and you’re good to go.
Step 9: Kick applications to the curb
You may think Farmville is cute, and you may like slapping hookers in Mafia Wars, but those applications are hellbent on gobbling up your info to cast it on the four winds. . . and make money.
If you’re ready to ditch the dumb goldfish for a little privacy, then click on each of the following links and press the big blue “X” next to every application listed (see below).
Recently Used Applications
Applications Added to Profile
Authorized Applications
Applications Granted Additional Permissions
NOTE: The Events, Groups, Links, Photos, Notes, Gifts and Video applications come with Facebook. It’s recommended that you do not prevent these applications from interacting with your profile, so don’t press their “X!” It is also recommended that you do not disable Facebook access from your phone.
X marks the spot: click button to get some privacy back.
Step 10: Remove your profile from Google
Starting last year, Facebook allowed user profiles to be found on Google. What you might not know is that Google’s search results highly favor Facebook, meaning a search for your name is likely to return your Facebook profile before anything else.
Thankfully, Facebook users can make sure their profile can only be found through Facebook’s search, which can only be used by other Facebook members.
Don’t feel like talking to your jerk of an ex? Thought so. The search privacy panel can also make sure nobody but Facebook friends can find you in Facebook’s search.
To enable the last two options that put Facebook back in your control, visit the Search Privacy menu and match it with our settings below.
Final thoughts
Facebook is working to land at the center of the Next Big Thing™ on the Internet: connected websites. Tomorrow’s Internet won’t just wait for users to arrive and set their preferences. No, tomorrow’s webpages will already have what they need to customize their advertising, content and appearance just for you. All they need is a database packed with user info: Facebook.
Facebook is the heart of a machine that will practically print money when it hits critical mass. All it will take is a few hundred popular websites amongst the Internet’s billions of pages to set it all in motion. Facebook knows that, and the company is working overtime to ensure that your information is there for the taking when that time comes.
Facebook also knows that you won’t leave the service. There are few viable alternatives, and none of them have the friends you love to talk to. None of them have the great games you play or the six years of history you’ve uploaded. You’re locked in, baby, and Facebook isn’t letting you go. The numbers show it: Despite the deliberate erosion of privacy, Facebook continues to grow by 5 million users a month.
You’re a commodity to be sold at the highest bidder. Don’t be.
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