Facebook’s Privacy Troubles on the Horizon

Back in February of 2009 there was a big debate over the new terms of agreement that Facebook adopted. Due to the negative feedback over this decision, Facebook’s executives caved from the pressure and reverted to the old terms. Now a little over a year later, this same group is at it again.

If you have a Facebook account and haven’t bothered to check your privacy settings lately, you may be surprised to learn just how much any and everyone can find out about you. Due to recent changes in the company’s privacy policy, more of your personal information is now easily accessible in more ways than you can imagine.

Facebook’s idea of privacy is that you, the user, have to police what you share. In other words, it is your responsibility to constantly check your privacy settings to see if any changes have been made and opt out of these changes if you don’t agree. I’m sure that most of you would agree when I say, there are better things to do with your time than to constantly check privacy settings on a website.

Feel free to see for yourself:

1. Once logged in, click on the ‘Account’ button and then ‘Privacy Settings’.
2. Next click on ‘Applications and Websites’, ‘What you Share’ and hidden almost at the bottom of the page click ‘this page’.
3. Make sure you go through each application listed by clicking on ‘Edit Settings’ and secure them to your liking.
4. Now, go back to the ‘Applications and Websites’ page and click on ‘What your friends can show about you’ to edit the options here as well.
5. Finally, back on the ‘Applications and Websites’ page, click on the ‘Instant Personalization Pilot Program’ link and uncheck the box that allows Facebook partners to access your public information when you arrive on their websites.

Once you finish, ask yourself, should I really be forced to put up with this?