You may have procrastinated by hitting “skip for now,” but Facebook eventually took away that button and forced you to update your settings before continuing to use the site.
After finally accepting Facebooks recommendations or tweaking the privacy settings yourself, though, you might have made more information about you public than what you had intended.
At the same time, Facebook has given users many granular controls over their privacy, more than whats available on other major social networks.
So if you want to stay out of peoples view, but still want to be on Facebook, here are some things to look out for as you take another look at your settings.
1. Some of your information is viewable by everyone.
Everyone can see your name, your profile photo and the names of work and school networks youre part of. Ditto for pages you are a fan of. If you are worried about a potential employer finding out about a quirky fetish or unorthodox political leaning, avoid becoming a Facebook fan of such groups. You cant tell Facebook you dont want those publicly listed. Your gender and current city are also available, if you choose to specify them. You can uncheck “Show my sex in my profile” when you edit your profile if you dont want it listed, and you can leave “Current City” blank.
2. Your list of friends may also be public.
Facebook also considers your friends list publicly available information. Privacy advocates worry that much can be gleaned from a persons list of friends - even sexual orientation, according to one MIT study. But there is a way to hide the list. Go to your profile page and click on the little blue pencil icon on the top right of your box of friends. Uncheck “Show Friend List to everyone.” Either way, those you are already friends with can always see your full list.
3. You can hide yourself from Web searches.
There is a section for “Search” under Facebooks privacy settings page, which is accessible from the top right corner of the Web site under “Settings.” If you click the “Allow” box next to “Public Search Results,” the information that Facebook deems publicly available (such as photo, fan pages and list of friends), along with anything else you have made available to everyone, will show up when someone looks up your name on a search engine such as Google. The stuff youve limited access to in your profile will not show up.
This is useful if you want people youve lost touch with, or potential work contacts, to be able to find your Facebook page. If youd rather not be found, uncheck this box.
A second setting, controlling searches within Facebook, lets you refine who can find you once that person has logged on. Limit searches to friends only if you think you have all the friends you need and dont want anyone to find you when they type in your name to Facebook.
Quizzes and games are fun, but each time you take one, you first authorize it to access your profile information, even if you have made that available only to your friends. Youre also letting the app access some information on your friends.
Under “Application Settings,” Facebook lists all the apps you have opened your profile up to. If you no longer want to authorize access to “Which Golden Girl Are You?” you can always remove it by clicking on the “X” next to its name. Apps you use regularly, such as Facebook for Android if you update your status from your mobile phone, should stay.
Next, by clicking on “Applications and Websites” on the privacy settings page, you can edit whether your friends can share your birthday, photos and other specific information. Remember that applications can access your “publicly available information” no matter what.
The security firm Sophos recommends users set their privacy settings for two of Facebooks own popular applications, notes and photos, to friends only.
5. Go over your list of friends.