Facebook Graph Search: Important Facebook privacy settings you need to check

 No matter how hard you try to protect your privacy on Facebook, others can tag you in all manner of offensive posts and photos. This page allows you some control over the tagging process. You can choose who sees the things posted on your timeline and the posts that tag you by others. You can set it to notify you before you are tagged. You can choose who is able to post directly to your timeline, too. You can set it to where nobody can post on there, if you want to.The most important thing on this page is at the very bottom. You are given the choice whether you want to allow yourself to be automatically tagged through facial recognition technology! Yes, it’s rather science fiction, isn’t it? Choose the option, “No one.”For the next concern, refer to the left-hand column again and choose “Apps.” Some of the options on the “Privacy Settings” page are repetitive from the “Privacy Shortcuts,” but go ahead and go through all of those. There may be a slightly different option you need to use. The most important thing on this page that is found nowhere else is the search engine option.  It is operated by clicking on the word "On" or "Off," whichever is currently showing.  (Hopefully, your setting is off!) Here is what Facebook says in way of explanation of this option:Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline?Please note:When this setting is on, it is easier for other search engines to link to your timeline in search results.If you turn off this setting, it may take a while for search engines to stop showing the link to your timeline in their results.To turn on this setting, first you need to set your Who can look up your timeline by name? setting to Everyone.Under most circumstances, it would be assumed that any Facebook user would click “off” for this option. Who would want their Facebook posts showing up in search results?Also accessible from this page, in the left-hand column is a menu choice called “Timeline and Tagging,” which is the next slide.  Facebook has recently provided a drop down menu entitled “Privacy Shortcuts.” It is accessible through a little symbol of a lock located at the top right-hand corner of the page. Upon clicking on that, you will be offered three choices and an option to see more settings underneath. (You can’t see that option in the above screen shot.)As you go through the options and pull-down menus, you will choose who can see your Facebook posts and contact you. These are your choices, but remember that the ones with a little globe symbol are public access.After you make your choices on each of the three menu options, click on “More Settings.” This will take you to the next screen, the “Privacy Settings.” This page will look much like "Privacy Shortcuts" because some of the questions are the same, but there are important options that you must address on the full page of "Privacy Settings."View the list »
Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg introduces Graph Search features during a presentation January 15, 2013 in Menlo Park. Facebook announced a search function that works within the website and allows users to search content that people

Social Media newsletter

Many of us are not quite aware of how specific the new Facebook Graph Search will be and how instantaneously information can be extricated from years of a user’s Facebook posts. According to an article in Press and Guide.com on Saturday, Feb. 9, you could do a search for “restaurants in Palo Alto” or “photos of friends before 1999.”

Related topics

Advertisement

The author of this article, Brandon Bailey of Digital First Media, signed up for the beta testing of the Facebook Graph Search and had some interesting thing to say about it. Upon realizing how easily and quickly your personal photos and information will be accessible to anyone, it is imperative to tighten up your Facebook privacy settings.

Before you begin to adjust your settings on Facebook, you can take a good look at what is currently available to the casual Facebook users, both friends and the general public. Here is an article about how to see what part of your Facebook profile is public or friends only. It tells you how to use a tool to discover what photos you have in the searchable information base on Facebook Graph Search. Read how to determine your public information here.

Remember your Activity Log will show you all your Facebook posts, and if it has a little globe symbol, it is public! You should clean up your past activity using these instructions, then you should check your settings so that all future activity will only be available to the public when you desire it to be.

Here are some very important Facebook privacy settings that you need to check before the Facebook Graph Search tool is fully functional. Remember that some of these may be repetitive, but Facebook’s privacy controls are quite well-hidden under different headings. To play it safe, check and recheck because they change quite often, too.

View the list
  •  Facebook has recently provided a drop down menu entitled “Privacy Shortcuts.” It is accessible through a little symbol of a lock located at the top right-hand corner of the page. Upon clicking on that, you will be offered three choices and an option to see more settings underneath. (You can’t see that option in the above screen shot.)As you go through the options and pull-down menus, you will choose who can see your Facebook posts and contact you. These are your choices, but remember that the ones with a little globe symbol are public access.After you make your choices on each of the three menu options, click on “More Settings.” This will take you to the next screen, the “Privacy Settings.” This page will look much like "Privacy Shortcuts" because some of the questions are the same, but there are important options that you must address on the full page of "Privacy Settings."
  •  Some of the options on the “Privacy Settings” page are repetitive from the “Privacy Shortcuts,” but go ahead and go through all of those. There may be a slightly different option you need to use. The most important thing on this page that is found nowhere else is the search engine option.  It is operated by clicking on the word "On" or "Off," whichever is currently showing.  (Hopefully, your setting is off!) Here is what Facebook says in way of explanation of this option:Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline?Please note:When this setting is on, it is easier for other search engines to link to your timeline in search results.If you turn off this setting, it may take a while for search engines to stop showing the link to your timeline in their results.To turn on this setting, first you need to set your Who can look up your timeline by name? setting to Everyone.Under most circumstances, it would be assumed that any Facebook user would click “off” for this option. Who would want their Facebook posts showing up in search results?Also accessible from this page, in the left-hand column is a menu choice called “Timeline and Tagging,” which is the next slide. 
  •  No matter how hard you try to protect your privacy on Facebook, others can tag you in all manner of offensive posts and photos. This page allows you some control over the tagging process. You can choose who sees the things posted on your timeline and the posts that tag you by others. You can set it to notify you before you are tagged. You can choose who is able to post directly to your timeline, too. You can set it to where nobody can post on there, if you want to.The most important thing on this page is at the very bottom. You are given the choice whether you want to allow yourself to be automatically tagged through facial recognition technology! Yes, it’s rather science fiction, isn’t it? Choose the option, “No one.”For the next concern, refer to the left-hand column again and choose “Apps.”
  •  When you click on “Apps” in the left-hand column while in “Privacy Settings,” You are presented with a page that looks like the one above. It will contain a list of the apps that you have authorized to access your account.  If you want to remove their authorization, click on the “X” out beside the name of the app. You may be surprised at some of the sites that you have authorized to have access to your account.There are some other important choices you must make about what is shared through your apps and the apps used by your Facebook friends.  A very important selection involves the information that your friends take with them about you to their apps.  Be sure that all little boxes are unchecked in that section if you don’t want your profile to be referenced in the Facebook game or app they are using. The next stop on the path to checking your Facebook privacy is a little further down the left-hand column: “Ads.”
  •  On the left-hand side of the “Privacy Settings” section, choose “Ads” to remove yourself from being featured in Facebook ads and promotions.There are two different choices to be made on this page, and they are both important. The first one, oddly, is hypothetical, according to Facebook."Facebook does not give third party applications or ad networks the right to use your name or picture in ads. If we allow this in the future, the setting you choose will determine how your information is used."Reading between the lines, you would probably not be notified right away if they did!  You should choose the option for them to show your information to "no one” from the drop down menu to protect your privacy.Facebook reminds you that through using social plugins you may see some of your information on the web. It is a good thing to keep in mind when you are using Facebook on other sites as a log-in.The other choice to be made at the bottom of the page is very important to your Facebook privacy settings. You are given the option of “pairing your social actions with ads.” Who do you want to see your "social actions?" Choose “no one,” if you don’t want your activity made public through advertisements!
  •  The last of the options for Facebook privacy that will be discussed here is your Facebook profile. (There are some security issues regarding Facebook that are above the pay grade for a Social Media Examiner!)Your profile can be reached by clicking on the “About” on your Facebook page. You will be faced with a large page of options regarding what you want to share publicly, such as your birthday, email, and phone number. Your birth date and phone number are definitely not something that you want to publicize to anyone, even friends!  These are two tools in the identity thief’s arsenal that put him well on the way to accessing your information.Your profile picture is always available to anyone on Facebook, along with whatever information you have left public on this page. Depending on the level of privacy you want to assure, you may want to use an icon of some sort for your profile picture and leave all personal photos for your private albums.Carefully scour this page to be certain that your personal details are not available to anyone at all. Be sure that under “Basic Information” that you have chosen “Don’t show my birth date on my timeline.”Check “Contact Information” to be sure your phone number and any personal email addresses are not public. There is an email assigned for Facebook users that you may want to leave public for contact, but that’s up to you. 
View the list
Suggested by the author:

, Knoxville Social Media Examiner

Barbie Crafts enjoys pursuing her freelance career by writing on a variety of topics here at the Examiner. She has also been published on Associated Content, Demand Media, Triond, and Crafts 'n Things magazine.

Advertisement

Today's top buzz...