Protecting Yourself from Facebook

Facebook privacy concerns us all...

It seems like everyone is worried about Facebook privacy these days.  At least everyone seems to be sharing, and by sharing, I mean copy and pasting statuses regarding some sort of privacy issue, from instructions to friends to uncheck notification settings to protect your privacy (doesn't work - see my other post about Facebook privacy settings here) to posting that their content cannot be used for <insert legal mumble jumble here>...

What really works?

Spam, Spam, Facebook, and Email Spam

Everyone loves to be in touch, but nobody really likes spam...  Except maybe Monty Python's Flying Circus...  Facebook can be a downpour of spam emails every day if you let it.  I'm going to show you how to shorten the list to a trickle each month.  Remember, only follow these steps if you don't like hitting delete on numerous emails a day from Facebook - that's what real email spam is for!

First off, we need to get to you account settings.  In the upper right of Facebook, you'll see your profile picture, name, 'Home', privacy, and a gear.  Apparently the gear makes all Facebook work, and it's where you find such things as the ability to logout (who'd ever want to!?!), privacy & account settings, ads, your apps, and the ability to use Facebook as any of the pages you administer.  You can see I could use Facebook as myself, Fish Temagami - my online fishing show fan page, or Leisure Island Houseboat Rentals, my business page for our houseboat rental business.  Using Facebook as one of these pages allows you to comment and like interests on behalf of your page.

Blocking Facebook Game Alerts

Facebook can be a great way to stay in touch with friends or reconnect with old ones.  The only problem is, as your friends list grows, you're bound to start getting a plague of game notifications.  So and so wants a something or another in Whateverville.  Join your friend playing the newest Facebook game.  Hey, somebody just played this in that!  And soon you'll find your news feed is nothing more than a pile of game notifications with a random piece of actual news you want to read.  Hey, let's face it, those can be hard enough to find without all these crazy notifications, right?

There are several methods you can use to block Facebook game messages, but some of them still let certain messages through.  An example would be to turn off a friend's game notifications in your news feed (hover your mouse cursor over your friend's name, then hover over "Friends" button in the window that pops up, then click settings and uncheck "Games" from the list of your friend's activities that you'll be notified about.)  This can help, but I've found that apps can get around them by posting directly to your wall about your friend's activity.

Target the App Center...

Facebook privacy starts with you...

If you are on Facebook long enough, you're going to see a friend's status start something like this...

"Warning!!!  FACEBOOK HAS CHANGED THEIR PRIVACY SETTINGS!"

Have you ever received a phone call saying you just won a cruise?  Got an email saying you won millions of pounds?  Will get thousands of dollars for forwarding a message because you're helping some software company test tracking software?  Have you ever been the victim of a practical joke?

What follows this statement is a list of instructions of what they would like you to do to help them keep their privacy, and it MUST be done by you (sometimes upon threat of becoming an ex-friend)!  They suddenly have no control over their account privacy settings because Facebook configured it that way.  Ok, stop...  Let's think about this a minute.  Does Facebook really want to upset people like that?  Hmm, they did force Timeline on us despite much outcry...  Alright, maybe they could be that dumb...  Back in our post, the last request is to copy said post and paste the message to your status and post it and the poster will be kind enough to help you out in the same way.  Thanks, you're so kind!  But then, you just followed the message, right?