May 25, 2013

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Facebook Changes Privacy Controls… Again

December 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Facebook recently changed your privacy controls, again, and now is a good time to check to make sure your privacy settings are where you want them to be.  If you have kids or older parents on Facebook, this is a good learning opportunity for them too that having a digital presence means periodically checking to make sure you are putting your best digital foot forward.

The first check is your Privacy Settings.  In the upper-right corner, click on the arrow next to Home and select Privacy Settings.

When I first opened the Privacy Settings page, I saw that my setting was on Public.  I never post publicly on Facebook (that’s what I use Twitter for), so I changed the setting back to Friends.  This option hides my posts from anyone I’m not friends with on Facebook.

The second step is to see how your profile looks to others.  To do that, go to your profile and and click on the cog icon next to Activity Log and select View As.

I use this option to see how my Facebook profile looks to people I’m not Facebook friends with.  This option showed me that I had been publicly posting on Facebook for the past month or two.  It is not my intention to publicly share posts and photos on Facebook, I want to keep my Facebook information secured to friends only.

Make sure you scroll all the way down the page when using this option so you can see everything.  You can also type in a name at the top if you want to see how your profile looks to someone else.

The third step was to change the public posts back to being visible by friends only.  There are two ways to do this.  The first is you could go through each post and change the option.  This option is time consuming (depending on the number of posts) and you could potentially miss something.  The second option is to use the “Limit the Audience for Past Posts” in Privacy Settings.  I prefer the second option as its easier and takes care of everything with one click.

Click the “Manage Past Post Visibility” link and you will be prompted to confirm the action.  This action will go through all of your past posts and set the visibility to whatever your default is.  In step 1, I changed my default to Friends so using this action will change the visibility of all posts to Friends.  If my default was Public, then this action would change anything I had previously hidden to Friends to Public.

Changing your privacy settings isn’t hard to do.  Remembering to periodically check your privacy settings is the hard part.  For me, I don’t check them on a regular basis unless I read an article that Facebook changed the settings again.

If my child was older and on Facebook, I would check his settings on a regular basis.  Like us, he will be figuring out how to navigate Facebook as he goes and he will probably make some mistakes.  By keeping his Privacy Settings secured, hopefully that will minimize the damage and help him get a job or scholarship.  Remember, your child’s online presence could come back to haunt him one day if not properly managed.

Did you check your Facebook Privacy Settings?  Did you have to change anything?  Are your kids online?  If yes, how do you help them manage their Facebook Privacy Settings?  Let us know in the comments!

For more information on the new Privacy changes, I recommend you check out this article Facebook’s Privacy Evolution Crawls Another Step Out of the Ooze.  It has an image of what the new Privacy option looks like and information about the Activity Log, a feature I haven’t checked out yet.

Other Related Links:

 
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One Facebook News Feed Sorted Two Ways

November 15, 2012 by 2 Comments

I’ve noticed some inconsistencies with my Facebook News Feed.  Some days I would see new posts at the top and other times old posts at the top with newer posts at the bottom.  This went on for a few days until I remembered there is a Sort option at the top of the News Feed.  The option had been set to Top Stories instead of Most Recent.  Once I switched it back to Most Recent, I saw the News Feed sorted the way I expected it to.  The Sort option is located at the top of your News Feed.

Facebook uses an algorithm to decide what to show in the Top Stories feed.  I have no idea how the algorithm works but I see a trend that people who post frequently tend to bubble up to the top of the Top Stories feed.

I prefer my Facebook News Feed sorted by Most Recent so I can quickly glance at it and see only the newest posts.  With the Top Stories sort, I feel like I have to scroll past more posts I’ve already seen just to get to the new stuff.  Sometimes Facebook remembers how I like my News Feed sorted, sometimes it doesn’t so be prepared to have to change the sort depending on your preference.

Have you noticed a change in your Facebook News Feed?  Which Sort option do you like, Top Stories or Most Recent?  Let me know in the comments!

Other Facebook Posts On Beyond The Defaults:

 

Did you know Beyond The Defaults is now on Facebook and Twitter?  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and feel free to ask us any tech questions you have! You can also sign up to receive new posts delivered directly to your Inbox!

 

 

 
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WSJ: Web Profiles Haunt Students

October 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In a piece published today in the Wall Street Journal, Web Profiles Haunt Students, it’s pretty clear that too many kids today forget that those social networks – Facebook, Twitter and Google+ – are not nearly as private as they think.

Here’s an excerpt:

About a quarter of admissions officers at the nation’s top 500 colleges have used websites such as Facebook and Google to vet applicants, according to an annual Kaplan Test Prep survey. Of those, more than one-third say they have found something that has hurt a student’s chance of admission, up from 12% last year.

It goes on to say:

Vetting by using social-media sites including Facebook and Twitter still hovers in a gray zone at most college admissions offices. Just 15% of the schools in the survey had an official policy about whether to do so, and more than two-thirds of those schools said they won’t use the technique.

Among schools without a policy, more than a quarter say they have checked out a student’s online persona, up slightly from last year, said Jeff Olson, vice president of data science at Kaplan Test Prep, who conducted the survey this summer. Kaplan has included questions about social media in its annual survey for four years.

“The trend line is there,” Mr. Olson said. “My advice to students is to be smart and think twice about what you post online.”

We’ve said this before (more precisely, Abby said this last February in Talking Tech With Your Kids ), but it’s obviously worth repeating:

Make sure your kids understand how social network activity, if not handled properly, WILL come back to bite in very uncomfortable ways.

Yes, the Grandmother Rule is a good rule: do not post anything online (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) that you would not want your grandmother to see.

So as Crosby, Stills and Nash once sang, teach your children well.

(Note: WSJ is a paid service, so access to the full article may require membership. Sorry, we can’t repost it in its entirety here.)

 
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People Searches in your Facebook Activity Log

September 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I stumbled across an article today from Gizmodo: Facebook Is Now Recording Everyone You Stalk.

Yes, the headline is attention-getting – that’s the idea, right?

Before you panic, here’s the short version:

  • A new “feature” being rolled out to Facebook users, that records your people searches in your Activity Log.
  • It’s not retroactive, and is being gradually rolled out to users.
  • Your Activity is only visible to you, and not to your Facebook “audience”.
  • You do have the option to clear your search history as well.

Take a few minutes to read the article (there are links to the Facebook announcement included in it).

And if you’re searching for people (stalking is a harsh word, certainly none of our readers would be doing such things), you will be leaving some breadcrumbs.

 
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Check your Facebook E-Mail Address

September 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Back in June, our friends at Facebook did something kind of “under the covers” – they changed primary user e-mail addresses from the correct ones that we all entered into our profiles to something with a domain of @facebook.com. Nice of them to do so – and better yet, not tell us.

When it was implemented, Lifehacker did a great job of detailing what happened and how to fix it. It’s worth your time to read it here. The short version: check your Facebook profile.

So why am I dredging up June news now? Thank your friends at Apple.

One of the new features in iOS 6 (the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad) is tighter integration with Facebook – as in “how about we suck your entire Facebook friend list down into your device’s contacts app?” kind of integration. So as people are updating their phones and tablets, a good number of them (as detailed in today’s post on TechCrunch) will enable Contact Sync in their Facebook options.

Which means if you haven’t double checked your settings, your friends may not have your real e-mail address. It will be something at facebook.com.

Consider yourself warned.

 

A Note From Us:

Both of the above links appeared first on the Beyond The Defaults Facebook page; if you’re not liking us there, you should be because we tend to post a variety of article and video links in that location.

However, we’ve come to realize that not everyone gets their updates that way. Many of you see our updates in your inbox, telling you we’ve posted new information on the day we post it. Maybe you’re just not a “Facebooker”.

So going forward, we’ll do our best to post in both places, because we don’t want anyone feeling left out.

 

 
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From The Mailbag: How To View Photos In Your Facebook News Feed

September 3, 2012 by 2 Comments

Holly left a great comment on my Facebook Timeline post and asked,

Hi There, with regard timeline and newsfeed, do you know why uploaded photo albums appear only in your timeline and not your newsfeed? I cannot get them to appear in the newsfeed also? Help!

This is a great question Holly and once you know where to look, any easy setting to adjust.

To adjust the type of posts that show up for a Facebook friend, go to their profile and click the Friends button, then the Settings option.  If you aren’t currently seeing their updates in your News Feed, make sure the Show in News Feed option is checked.

From the Settings menu, you can choose which types of updates you want to see in your News Feed.  I’m interested in Life Events, Status Updates, and Photos.  I’m not interested in Games, so I could uncheck that option to make sure I don’t see those types of updates in my News Feed.

The only downside is you will have to go to each Facebook friend’s profile to modify these settings.

Great question Holly!  If you have a question about Facebook or anything else, please let us know in the comments!

 
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My Son Grounded Me From Facebook

March 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Parents embarrass their children.  Its a ritual that’s been passed down from generation to generation.  I remember as a kid when I prayed for the ground to open up and swallow me hole to save me from my embarrassing parents.  Now I am grateful that there were limited instances in which my parents could embarrass me and Facebook and Twitter were not around then.  Children today do not have that luxury as I recently learned after I embarrassed my 8 year old stepson on Facebook.

Let me set the scene for you.  It was after dinner and homework time and it was time for him to get a shower.  As usual, he was taking forever and I went in to check on him and I found him doing tai chi in the shower.  They were reading a story at school that mentioned tai chi and then someone taught him some moves (without proper explanation of where its appropriate to do!).  After asking him what he was doing, I told him to stop, he did, and then I did what any other parent would do who just had a funny interaction with their kid, I posted it on Facebook.

I didn’t think anymore of it until he came home a few days later.  I am friends with his best friend’s mom on Facebook and she saw my post and shared it with her son, who then relayed it to the lunch table the next day.  My power to embarrass my son is so powerful that I can embarrass him without even being there.  I felt terrible.  It was a funny situation that made my husband and I laugh and I knew others would get a kick out of, but it wasn’t worth embarrassing him in front of his friends.

I could unfriend the parents of his friends or hide kid related posts from them, but that’s not solving the issue.  And, its not their fault, its mine.  I chose to post the story on Facebook and I made the decision to share what happened in the privacy of my own home in a public forum.  And once I made the decision to put it out there, I no longer had control over what happens to that story.  Its the choice that I made, I am responsible, and my son and I have to live with the outcome.

Now I am much more conscious about what I post about him on social media and my personal blog.  Yes, they are my accounts but I also have to think of his future and feelings.  One day, he is going to apply for a job or scholarship and someone when they search for him on the internet, they will see what I’ve posted about him on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog.  Its my job as a parent to make sure I’m preparing him for life, real and online.

So now, I ask him before I post anything about him online (including this post) and if he says no, then I don’t post it.  The picture of the spider he put on my ice cream because he was trying to scare me is kid approved.  After I finished screaming, he said “You can put that on Facebook”.

I highly recommend you read 8 words from my 5 year old that changed social media forever by Jon Acuff.  It resonated with me the first time I read it in November 2011 and even more so now.  And this article by Lisa Belkin, What Should Parents Never Share Online, is an interesting read about what happens when parents share too much online.

Have you embarrassed your kids on Facebook?  How do you decide what to post about your kids online?  Let me know in the comments!

Did you know Beyond The Defaults is now on Facebook and Twitter? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also sign up to receive new posts delivered directly to your Inbox!

 
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Multiple Personalities: Facebook Pages

March 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Many Beyond The Defaults readers are also Facebook users, which means you’re hopefully following the Beyond The Defaults Facebook page. Pages are the way Facebook handles “non-personal” profiles – those for business, groups, clubs, school class sites and even things like BTD.

I won’t go into the “how’s and why’s” for creating a Facebook Page for your organization -  you can find that on the Facebook site. What I do want to talk about is how to manage “‘personas” while working with Facebook Pages.

Here’s the scenario:

  • I have my own Facebook page.
  • I’m an administrator for two other Facebook Pages (one of which is Beyond The Defaults).
  • When I post to Beyond The Defaults, do I post as myself or as “Beyond The Defaults”?

When you create a Page, you’re designated as the Admin for the page (which makes sense). In addition, and by default, there’s a Posting Preference that gets set which forces all comments and posts to be shown as being authored by “Beyond The Defaults” – regardless if I’m logged as me (Sam).

So what if I want post as me? It’s a simple change to the page settings:

  1. Go to the Facebook Page for which you’re the Admin.
  2. You will need to edit the Page. If you’ve not been cut over to Timeline for Pages (and it’s coming soon), the Edit Page button is in the top right-hand portion of the page. If you’re working with Timeline (which will be the norm soon), open the Admin Panel, choose Manage – Edit Page.
  3. Select Your Settings from the left sidebar.
  4. Modify the Posting Preferences; so if you want to post as “you”, deselect the Posting Preferences option to “Always comment and post…”

 

Now, if you ever want to change personas mid-stream (meaning you’re logged in as you, and now you want or need to post as the Admin of your Facebook Page), you can do so on the fly:

  1. On the far right hand side of the Facebook Header (top right of the screen), click the downward pointing arrow.
  2. Choose the persona you want to use by selecting one of the Use Facebook As options:
  3. Put in your post.
  4. Switch back to whatever persona when you’re done, using Steps 1-2 above.

So for those of you with multiple Facebook personalities, or are thinking about creating that new Facebook page for your club or group, now you have an an easy way to keep your personalities straight. Without medication.

(Editors’ Note: If you are on Facebook, and you’re not following us there, shame on you.)

 
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Facebook Timeline

February 9, 2012 by 8 Comments

Have you seen the Facebook Timeline yet?  Some people have already started using the Timeline, but soon everyone will be using the Timeline.  It will replace your current Facebook Wall and Profile page.  The Timeline will not affect your News Feed, only your personal page.  Don’t want the Facebook Timeline?  Too bad, so sad, you don’t have a choice.

Once you activate your Facebook Timeline, you have 7 days to setup your timeline before anyone else can see it.  Use this time to pick out what you want to appear in your timeline.  Its your timeline, so you choose what shows up and what doesn’t.

To get the Timeline, click here and click on the Get Timeline button at the bottom of the page.  If you regularly post updates and pictures to Facebook, be prepared to be overwhelmed with your Facebook history.  You will have the option of removing specific updates from your timeline if you want.

Check Your Privacy Settings

When I activated my timeline, I noticed that Facebook changed my privacy settings to make my information public despite the fact I had previously set everything to private.  If you do nothing else to your Timeline, at least restrict all the posts on your Timeline to Friends only by going to your Privacy Settings – How You Connect.  Change the second to last setting, Limit the Audience for Past Posts, to restrict your Timeline to Friends only.  This is the fastest and easiest way to make sure your Timeline stays private to friends only.  If you care to, you can go through and edit individual posts at a later date.

In your Privacy Settings, check out How Tags Work to further customize your Timeline settings.  I have Timeline Review and Tag Review set to On which means I must approve posts I’ve been tagged in before they appear on my Timeline.  My Maximum Timeline Visibility is set to Friends, Tag Suggestions is set to Friends, and Friends Can Check Me Into Places is set to No to give me the most control over what my friends can post about me on Facebook.

Editing Your Timeline

You can edit what shows up by using the star and pencil icon in the upper right corner of the post (they will appear when you hover on the post).  Use the star/resize button to make posts larger or smaller.  If a post highlights an important time in your life, you can make the post as large as possible to call attention to it.  Use the pencil icon to hide posts from your Timeline (like the old softball picture from when I was 12, no one needs to see how awkward I looked then) or to change the main photo of an album.

Add A Cover Photo

On a normal Facebook page you get one profile picture, on a Facebook timeline you get a Facebook profile picture and a cover picture.  The profile picture will show up in the News feed when you post to your Wall or post a comment.  Your cover photo is the large photo that will appear at the top of your timeline.  Pick pictures that represent you and are appropriate.  If you are just graduating college and trying to get a job, a picture of you drinking alcohol or in any other appropriate position is not the right cover or profile picture for you.

 

 

 

 

One Last Check Before You Publish

Before you publish your Timeline, make sure you go to Settings – View As to see how your Timeline appears to other people.  The default view will show you how your Timeline appears to a non-Facebook friend.  If you do not want to make your profile available to the public, you need to use this option to check that your information is secure.  In this day and age, you are judged by your Facebook presence so make sure you are presenting the right image.

The Facebook Timeline is coming, whether we like it or not.  Take the time to review your Timeline and make adjustments when necessary.  If you want to learn more about the Facebook Timeline, I suggest you check out the resources below.

From Facebook: Introducing Timeline

12 Things You Should Know About the Facebook Timeline

How To Protect Your Privacy On Facebook Timeline – Without Wasting Time

5 ways to secure your Facebook profile in a post-Timeline World

 
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Hiding the Facebook Ticker

February 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I have mixed feelings about the Facebook Ticker.  Some days I feel like a creepy stalker because I can see what my friends are doing with their Facebook friends and they probably have no idea I can see what they are doing.  And other days it helps me connect with friends and catch up on major life events that I may not have noticed in my regular news stream.

You didn’t have the option to turn off the Facebook Ticker, until now.  Just click on the arrow in the upper right corner of the Ticker to collapse or expand.

I have mine collapsed for now and I’m going to try it for a few days to see if I miss it.

Don’t remember what the Facebook Ticker is?  Check out Sam’s post on it and tips for controlling how your information is displayed in the Ticker.

How about you, do you like the Facebook Ticker?  Or do you feel like a creepy stalker like I do?  Let us know how you feel in the comments!

Did you know Beyond The Defaults is now on Facebook?  Follow us on Facebook and feel free to ask us any tech questions you have! You can also sign up to receive new posts delivered directly to your Inbox!

 

 
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