Facebook Ninja - Controlling Your Privacy

While Facebook is a public website on the internet, there are quite a few settings in the site to help you keep your information as private as possible.

Friends/Group Lists

We all have friends who we are closer to, who know more about us than others. Facebook has finally realized this and lets us regulate exactly which pieces of our profile can be seen by who. This is done through their Lists feature.

Your Lists can be found by clicking "Friends" in the left menu on your home page. On the Friends page, you will see the "Create a list" button. Click the button and you're all set to make your groups.

Why make lists? I have used my lists in various ways. For example, my "Family" list is quite useful. There are certain pictures that I would like my Family to see but the rest of my friends don't really need to see pictures of me as a six year old. At the same time, my family really doesn't need to see every picture of me out with my friends. Aside from pictures, being able to limit pieces of your profile is handy as well. I have my phone number and address in my profile but only people in my "Jersey" and "Family" lists can see it.

Where Are The Privacy Settings?

All of your account privacy settings can be found in via the Account menu in the top right corner. Just click on "Account" then click on "Privacy Settings". We will be accessing all of our privacy options from this page.

Profile Privacy

On the Account > Privacy Settings page, click "Profile Information". Here you'll see your profile information broken down into sections. You can customize who has access to view every single one of these sections!

This page may seem overwhelming but it is not. There are 12 options to customize who can see these different areas of your profile page.

• Bio
• Likes and Interests
• Birthday
• Family and Relationship
• Education and Work
• Photo Albums
• Posts by Me
• Work Info
• Allow Friends to Post on my Wall
• Comments on Posts

Custom Settings

Now we get to use our lists!

Let's say that you want all of your friends to be able to view your basic information except for one person or group. Simply click, the "Customize" option in the dropdown menu. A window will appear on the screen allowing you to select who can view this section. The last option "Hide this from" is where you can add your exclusions. Simply start typing a friend's name or the name of a list you've already created then click 'Save Setting'. Now, all of your friends, except those selected can see this section.

'View As' Mode

So, you go through and assign different permissions to different lists but you want to see exactly what your facebook page looks like to a particular person... well, you can do just that! At the very top of the Profile Information page, click the "Preview My Profile" button.

By default, it will show you how your profile page appears to non-friends. Just type in a friend or list name, and you can see it the way that person/group does. Simply click the "Back to Privacy Settings" button to go back and make any changes you'd like.

Contact Settings

The second part of your Privacy Settings is "Contact Information". Here, you can assign who has access to which parts of your contact information including im screen name, mobile phone, other phone, current address, website, hometown, add me as a friend, send me a message, and email address. This way, you can have your new phone number display only for your Family list instead of for everyone. Simply select "Custom" from the drop down menu to make your exceptions.

Applications and Websites

This section is to protect your privacy from companies that use facebook.

In the "What your friends can share about you" section, if any of those checkboxes are checked, any application your facebook friends install are allowed to access that piece of information from your profile, even if you do not have the application installed!

In, "Blocked Applications", you can completely block applications so they cannot access any of your information.

The newest facebook addition to the privacy settings is "Instant Personalization."

By allowing this, you are allowing non-facebook websites to access your facebook profile and use your information to make their website more customized to you.

Search Privacy

One of the easiest ways to limit who has access to your profile is by removing yourself from Facebook's search. On the privacy settings page, click on "Search". On this page you will be able to adjust your Search Privacy options.

The "Public Search Resutls" checkbox, when checked, means that your facebook profile will appear on Google and other public search engines.

Block List

Even after you max out your privacy settings, there are still ways that people can access you. If you post on a friend's wall, then anyone can click on your name. Sure, they might not be able to see your profile, photo, or be able to message you, but they can still see what you posted on the wall. They can also see any photo comment that you make, as well.

To completely erase yourself completely from a particular person seeing your very Facebook existence, you can simply use the "Block List" to block anyone on Facebook! To add someone to the list, begin typing in their name in the text box, then click "Block". Done. This person will not see anything that you do on Facebook at all. None of your comments or postings will appear to them. It will simply look like you do not have a Facebook account.

Photo Privacy

In Profile Information, simply click the "edit settings" button next to "Photo Albums". You will be able to completely customize the privacy setting for each individual photo album you have on facebook.

The options are all the same as the previous privacy settings we've looked at. Anyone you place in the "Hide this from" list, won't see the album show up in your list of photo albums and won't be able to access it from any one else's comments.

Worth the trouble?

There have been times that after I have explained these small steps to some people, they responded with "I don't have time for that." I do agree that setting up these permissions takes some time, as does configuring any application. I would say that first-time set-up would take about ten minutes but with very little maintenance. Everytime you request to add someone as a friend, you can put them into one of your Friend Lists immediately within the request. This makes up-keeping your permissions fairly easy and seamless.