I'm on the verge of deleting my Facebook account because of the utter lack of respect they give users who don't want all their information spewed about. The approach Facebook uses reflects and outmoded mindset that says "if you shared your information once, then clearly you've implicitly declared it public knowledge." Case-in-point: if you're a fan of a given page, other users can see your name listed as a fan, and thus Facebook considers this information to be "public" and will publish it in search results, among other things. Of course, there's still a difference between the Facebook populace and the Internet at large, so I somewhat question how "public" that disclosure might be. Incidentally, Facebook has not provided a reasonable facility (that I can find) that allows you to easily manage all the pages you're a fan of, meaning cleanup of publicly exposed information is a challenge. But I digress...
Following are a few quick suggestions for helping reduce the "public" exposure of your Facebook information, both inside and outside of Facebook.
* Go to "Account" (upper right) then "Privacy Settings" and then go through "Personal Information and Posts" and "Contact Information" and "Friends, Tags and Connections" and "Applications and Websites" and "Search" to change as many settings as you prefer to "Friends Only" or more restrictive using the "Customize" option.
* Go to "Account" (upper right) then "Privacy Settings" then "SettingsSearch" then "Public Search Results" and deselect the "Allow" checkbox.
* Go to "Account" (upper right) then "Privacy Settings" then "Applications and Websites" then "Instant Personalization" and deselect the "Allow" checkbox.
* While you're on the "Applications and Websites" page, but sure to click the "Edit Settings" button for "What your friends can share about you" in order to reduce what your Facebook "friends" can share about you (this helps reduce secondary data leakage."
* Go to "Account" (upper right) then click the tab for "Facebook Ads" and set "Allow ads on platform pages to show my information to" to "No one" and then scroll down to also set "Show my social actions in Facebook Ads to" "No one" as well.
Finally, if you've found all of this too unnerving or are just plain fed up with Facebook, then the ultimate solution is to delete your account. Beware! The default mechanism in Facebook is to "deactivate" your account, which does not delete your information, and which leaves you open to data exposure! In particular, deactivation only cuts off access to other users, not to Facebook or other third parties.
Instead, to delete your account, go check out the following FAQ:
How do I permanently delete my account?
In particular, you will be guided to this link that allows you to complete a form requesting that your account be completely deleted.
I hope you find this little bit of information of use. I'm personally on the verge of deleting the account outright. We'll see how I feel after giving myself a weekend to think about it. In the meantime, I'll be looking for a way to go through and trim out all the pages I've apparently fan'd over the years. :S
>outmoded mindset that says "if you shared your information once, then clearly you've implicitly declared it public knowledge."
What does "outmoded" here mean? Was it in vogue before and now it is not anymore?
@Anonymous -
Yes. Maybe not "in vogue," but it's certainly a mindset that goes with a slightly older generation. It's analogous to the notion that anything you say or do on a public street is then by definition public (which is why paparazzi mob celebs in public places). We need to eliminate that mindset and replace it with one of inherent privacy; minding one's own business and not snooping into the affairs of others.
fwiw.
-ben