Facebook news scroller privacy problem
Facebook recently rolled out a news ticker or scroller on the right hand side of the site. Now it’s a pearler if you want to really keep up with absolutely everything in the world if you’ve nothing better to do but there is a gaping hole in it. The bottom line is this: You don’t have control.
It is not just your settings that control what goes in your Facebook newsfeed and appears on your friends’ tickers. Anyone’s posts which have privacy set to more than “Friends” will go to all the friends of all the commenters. This is a fact you need to address now.
The news feed because of settings makes it really easy for you to cock an ear when one of your friends says something to someone you’ve never heard of! Or even the ability to see what this stranger may have written originally. This is hardly ideal and waives 2 fingers at privacy! Hover your mouse over the news ticker right now and you’ll see what I mean. You can now see replies and comments from people you don’t know. And shockingly, vice versa.
If you have previously set your privacy setting to ‘just friends’ then you should be okay but it’s worth a revisit just to make sure. The real problem lies within your friends settings though. All your Facebook buddies need to make the change to ensure privacy is adhered to.
Get all your mates to do this ASAP:
Stop using the “Friends of friends” setting and go to “friends”. This is what is broadcasting so widely and you need to change it.
If you use the “Public” setting, explain that you are doing so. Then people can decide if they want all of their friends to be informed of their comments. Clue, don’t!!!
Limit all previous posts you have made via the privacy settings . Go down to the 4th box and click on ‘Limit the Audience for Past Posts’.
Use lists to decide who you want to see things (use the privacy controls in the top right of your posts).
Encourage your friends to restrict their setting to “friends” or custom lists too. This is the important bit. Also inform strangers or the connecting friend when strangers show up in your feed. It is their settings that made them show up.
The whole issue is a bit tricky to explain, but the remedy is relatively easy. If you want to stop strangers from seeing everything you do, you and your friends need to change your privacy settings to “Friends” or custom lists. That’s it but your Facebook compadres have to do the same. If you find your friends aren’t understanding the issue, forget about explaining the details and “copy and paste” this to your status:
“If you don’t want your actions broadcast to everyone via the new Facebook ticker / news Feed please set your privacy to “Friends” and ask your friends to do the same. Pass it on.”
When you post a status update you have 3 options:
Public
The big globe icon gives it away really, post it public and its going global. This means that unless you have blocked someone specifically, everyone on Facebook can see it. That’s 800 million people being informed that you’ve just ‘followed through after a dodgy kebab’ or that ‘fluffykins’ looks cute in an old cardboard box. Worse you’ve just called your boss a ‘t*at’ or ‘is doing the walk of shame, good result’. Any such comments posted on public and they are ‘out there’.
Friends
That’s the one. This will only be shared with your official mates. There is no worry of over exposure to strangers and its green light go with friends. This is the way ahead.
Custom
Cheeky one this because it can go both ways. Custom is what you want and just keep it ‘friends’. You get a little drop down menu option here. ‘Friends of Friends’ is the killer and anything you post using that setting will be whisked off to the news ticker for all to see.
Once again Facebook have fallen foul of making this clear and you are now relying on others to plug the holes. The question is will all your ‘friends’ take heed? My advice as always is lock it down as tight as possible and don’t post anything that you wouldn’t be happy to have read out in court!
As the fight is on for social supremacy, you may want to consider Google + as a viable alternative. No cows to be thrown, no Farmville popups and no surprises with privacy changes. Happy chatting.
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