Facebook Timeline and Your Privacy
I’m sure many of you have noticed a change to your Facebook page. The new Facebook Timeline is finally available to everyone, and it’s here to stay. Not surprisingly, the new features have been met with a lot of criticism from Facebook users. Confusion, frustration, and worries about personal privacy are the biggest complaints. I’ve had Timeline since they made it possible to do it on your own from the Developer app, so I’ve worked out the kinks in my timeline. More importantly, I have done what I could to control the information that is shared on it.
You see, Timeline is making it even easier for your Facebook friends to see what you are doing - all the time. Whether you’re listening to Fleetwood Mac on Spotify while you’re reading an article from the New York Times or you’ve posted a photo to Instagram from your local cafe, your friends will know. If you have those apps connected to Facebook, your actions will show up on your Timeline. Facebook calls this automatic sharing “Gestures.”
So how do you keep your daily business a little more under wraps? There are a few solutions. When you add an app to your Timeline, you have the option to share your activity with “Public,” “Friends,” or “Custom.” When you select “Custom,” you can hide your activity from everyone but yourself. You can also disable the sharing function directly from a particular app. While much of this “behind the scenes” privacy controlling may take you awhile, it will prevent some possibly embarrassing “Gestures” from appearing on your Timeline and hanging out there until the next time you sign in. The “Activity Log” on your profile allows you to monitor your activity and easily hide or delete your posts all together.
Just like all other major Facebook changes, you can complain and fight it but eventually learn to deal with it, or you can embrace a change and learn to make it work for you. Do you have thoughts about the privacy issues related to the new Facebook Timeline?
