Dear Facebook, I Would Like My Illusion* of Privacy Back, K, Thanks
When Facebook “upgraded” or “simplified” its privacy settings they removed the ability to turn off your recent activity feed (this was one update ago. I think). Now everything you do posts to your wall and the news feed. You can not opt out. If you don’t like it Facebook says you’re welcome to use the “Remove” button.
Great except there is no “remove” button on any mobile version of Facebook and it’s a pain in the you-know-what to delete all of my activity every time I’m active on Facebook.
I may grumble a bit every time Facebook makes an “improvement” but I adjust pretty quickly and move on. I am just not getting over this one. Every person I’ve spoken to about this has the same complaints I do. If you search the Help Center you’ll see post after post about it. You’ll see your friends complaining about it in their status updates.
This is what Facebook has to say about it:
Whether we display a story on your profile is now controlled by the privacy of the content itself, rather than an additional setting. For example, only people who can see both your Wall, and the Wall to which you posted would be able to see a story about you writing on a friend’s Wall. You cannot completely turn off recent activity stories anymore. However, if you want to remove a particular story that currently shows up, simply click the “Remove” button that appears to the right of the story after you move your mouse over it. Learn more about privacy here.
Yeah great, but WHY? I want to know why facebook remove the ability to turn off recent activity stories? What possible benefit am I missing to removing my option to check little box that allows me the illusion of privacy?
*yes I know that just by having a Facebook page I don’t really have any privacy, but the ability to hide my recent activity makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook from ReadWriteWeb
Sarah Perez at ReadWriteWeb has put together 5 easy steps to help you stay safe on Facebook.
- Make Friend Lists
- Who Can See What on Your Profile
- Who Can See Your Address and Phone Number
- Change Who Can Find You on Facebook via Search
- Stop Sharing Personal Info with Unknown Applications
Number 5 refers to an earlier post What Facebook Quizzes Know about You, I still see a LOT people taking these, so pay extra attention to this one!
They really are easy so you have no excuse go read how to do them!
Libraries and Facebook pages – Update!
Update 10/20/2009 This update is inaccurate, the orignal warning still stands.
Great news libraries & librarians! Your Facebook page is no longer tied to the account of the person who created it!
When you visit facebook.com you now see an option for “create a page for a celebrity, band or business”. You’ll be required to enter your full name to …” certify that you are an official representative of this brand, organization, or person and that you are permitted to create a Facebook Page for that subject.” There is a little warning about how false representation is a no-no. You will need to enter an email address and confirm it, so use a real one. But the end result is a page not tied to the profile of the person who created it! hurrah!
Facebook’s New Privacy Features: A Complete Guide from Mashable
Mashable has put together a Complete Guide, their words not mine, to Facebook Privacy settings. It covers
- Profiles – did you know soon you’ll be able to have fans? Yeah they can friend you but you don’t friend them back.
- Status Updates
- Realtime Search – searches last 30 days of news feed activity – photos, notes, images, videos, links, and status updates, plus the old stuff, groups, apps and people.
- What’s next
Go read & bookmark the whole thing quick! Cuz you know Facebook, the settings are likely to change tomorrow without warning 
Libraries and Transliteracy Blog- Media Skills Integrated into Core StandardsA draft of K-12 standards put forth by the National Governor’s Association, as part of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI), integrates media skills as a key design consideration of these standards. The draft points to the importance of these skills: To be ready for college, workforce training, and life in a technological society, students [... […]Tom Ipri
- What is Transliteracy?I attempt to answer some questions about transliteracy including what is it, in my Librarian by Day blog post – Defining Transliteracy I have been asked this question many times by librarians so I am way overdue for this post. Most recently I was asked “….are librarians the people best equipped to define and interpret transliteracy (as opposed [...] […]Bobbi Newman
- Digital Literacy Skills Essential to Closing Broadband Gap #knightcommThe Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy sites the Broadband Adoption and Use in America (pdf) report released by the Federal Communications Commission in Digital Literacy Skills Essential to Closing Broadband Gap when emphasising the importance and need for digital literacy The survey findings reinforce the growing body o […]Bobbi Newman
- Media Skills Integrated into Core Standards
-
- Feel free to quote blog posts and link back to the site. Please do not copy my entire post on your site. Thank you
Technorati Profile
