Manage Facebook Privacy Options

Starting in December 2009 Facebook changed the default settings to openly publish more of the information you share on the site. Since your Facebook profile is associated with your real name (which anyone, including job interviewers, can search for) you may want to keep more information private. And while you can always make parts or all of your profile private again, once information has been released to the Internet (e.g. search engines), there's not much you can do to take it back. So if you want to take an active approach towards guarding your privacy on Facebook, follow this guide.

In April 2010, Facebook released Open Graph personalization. To change your privacy settings on tools like instant personalization read How to Opt out of Facebook Instant Graph Personalization.

In May 2010, Facebook introduced a new privacy settings page which is intended to make controlling your privacy easier. This article will discuss how to use that page.

Steps

 * 1) [[Image:Fb1_588.jpg|right]]Click on "Account" from the upper right hand corner and choose "Privacy Settings".
 * 2) [[Image:Fb2_609.jpg|right]]Click on the various options on the left to see how they affect your privacy settings on the right.
 * 3) If you want to have full control over who sees your profile, meaning that only people you have chosen will be able to see any part of your profile, choose "Friends Only". Towards the bottom of the settings, uncheck the box that say "Let friends of people tagged in my photos and posts see them". Then click on "Apply These Settings". [[Image:Fb3_1702.jpg]]
 * 4) If there are parts of your profile you don't want some of your Facebook friends to see (such as if you can't reject a friends request from your nosy Aunt Bertha, but you really don't want her seeing what your real friends see), choose "Custom" and click on "Customize Settings". [[Image:Fb4_240.jpg]]
 * 5) *For every dropdown menu, choose "Customize". [[Image:Fb8_600.jpg]]
 * 6) *For "Make this visible to" choose "Specific People" from the dropdown menu and type in the name of the friends who you want to be able to see this part of your profile. Alternatively, choose who you want to lock out of that part of your profile by typing their names into "Hide this from". If you can see yourself picking out the same groups of people for each part of your profile, see How to Make Friends Lists on Facebook and type in the name of the list instead. [[Image:Fb9_879.jpg]]
 * 7) Go back to the main privacy page and click on the "View Settings" link under "Basic Directory Information". This controls who can find you, and what they can see if they do. It also controls who can contact you. Each setting has its own dropdown menu.  [[Image:Fb10.jpg|500px]]
 * 8) Set privacy for your photos by album. Go to this link and choose an option from the dropdown menu for each option, in the same way you did for the previous step.

Tips

 * You also have the option of controlling the privacy of your updates by the individual update, in addition to by default. Just click on the little lock next to the "Share" button when you post an update. This is good for when, say, you have it so that your boss can't see your updates, but there's one or a few that are okay for him to see. [[Image:Fb5_527.jpg|left|400px]]
 * Remember that even though you can control what people see on your profile, you can't always control what people see on others' profiles. In other words, whatever you post on someone else's page is viewable based on their privacy settings, not yours. In other words, don't leave dirty comments on other people's walls or pictures unless you're 100% sure they're on top of their privacy settings, or else those comments might come back to haunt you on search engines.

Related Tips and Steps

 * How to Opt out of Facebook's Open Graph Personalization
 * How to Keep Safe on Facebook
 * How to Deal With Your Family on Facebook
 * How to Avoid Wasting Time on Facebook
 * How to Quit Facebook

Sources and Citations

 * http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/01/live-blog-the-facebook-privacy-conference-call/
 * http://www.facebook.com/privacy/?ref=mb