Welcome to your Winter break!

This post is a follow up to last week’s discussion about the new Facebook privacy policy that is in effect. Many of you mentioned that you tried to read the explanation by the CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but didn’t really understand what it said. This is a big deal – so big that the government might be getting involved (http://mashable.com/2009/12/17/ftc-asked-to-investigate-facebooks-new-privacy-settings/).

To be brief, if you accept Facebook’s “recommended privacy settings”, you are opening your digital identity up to anyone who cares to look for you.  Parents, teachers, high school admissions counselors, advertising companies and search engines. As you know, once a search engine has a cache (copy) of your info, there is no way to get it removed…as Brian says, “Google is forever.”

If you haven’t already done so, please take 5 minutes to access your account and do these things:

  1. Login to your Facebook account.
  2. Go to “Settings” in the blue bar at the top of the browser window and choose “Privacy Settings” from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click through to “Profile info” and make sure everything is viewable only by people you know. Make sure you check out the settings in your photo albums too.
  4. Head back to the “Privacy Settings” page and fix your contact info. No one, including Facebook, needs your cell phone number or IM handle. If they want to contact you, let them use Facebook to do so.
  5. Head back to the “Privacy Settings” page and click on “Applications and Websites”. Do you really want your friends to be able to share your religious views and contact info? Uncheck all that stuff.
  6. Head back to the “Privacy Settings” page and click on “Search Engines”. Uncheck the box that allows search engines to copy your info. You will probably get a pop-up saying “Trust Facebook, everything is okay.” It’s fine if you trust them, just don’t let them give your info to other companies that you might not trust.
  7. Go to “Settings” in the blue bar at the top of the browser window and select “Account Settings” from the drop-down menu.  You should see tabs across the top of the page, select “Facebook Ads.”  On the next screen, click the drop-down next to “allow ads on platform pages to show my information to…” and choose “No one.”
  8. MAYBE MOST IMPORTANTLY…share this info with your parents, especially the ones that have Facebook accounts. They might be just as confused about the new privacy settings as you were before we talked!

Have a happy, healthy break. Get off the computer and go run around outside.

p.s. Thanks to Tessa for tip #7, and thanks to Richard at Catlin-Gabel for the suggestion to send a message to students.