Are you one of those whose status on Facebook is always “available”? Whether you use your tablet, or your smart phone, are you always connected to your friends through this social media? Although previously it was meant only for the friends, now every person has a Facebook profile. Almost 350 million people use this social media to stay connected with their friends, families and others. Therefore, it is very obvious that their privacy is always in a threat. As you can share photos and videos from other’s profile, others can also do the same with your profile. However, some are not comfortable with this. Of course they did join a SOCIAL MEDIA, but they find it uncomfortable that their photos are videos are being shared.
Facebook’s privacy policy or the “DATA USE POLICY”:
Facebook offers access to the user to control his or her own profile. When you add your vital details, it is not mandatory to broadcast or share them with others. Facebook gives you the choice to share it with your chosen friends. This facility is available on the privacy settings option.
It is very simple to customize your account. Suppose you have liked a page on Facebook, but you want to share it with your family only, not with your friends. Ladies and gentlemen, don’t panic, Facebook has given its users such provisions to customize who can see your links, updates, photos and videos. But the point is that, although you have hidden the updates that you have liked a page, how will you hide this information from that page that you are a fan or follower of?
How to use and utilize this policy?
Guess what is the purpose of being on a social media? Of course socializing with others and staying connected to your friends. Sharing your thoughts with others is what Facebook is made for. But of course you can modify your privacy and make your updates private or customized. If your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend is peeping into your account, continuously sending you messages or friend requests, then would you entertain it? I guess not! You would definitely want to stop that person from disturbing you. That provision was offered by Facebook in terms of blocking an account. That way you could stop that person from bothering you, ever.
What do see when you search for someone over Facebook? The profile picture, gender and hometown, right? You can customize even these. The default setting is however “Everyone” can see your updates, activities, likes, comments, relationship status and photos. Even the friend request that you will receive, will come from “Everyone”. But, all of these can be changed, if you may prefer so. Restrict your information to your friends, or friends of friends or you can even customize and choose selected friends who can go through your updates. Each and every bit of your account or profile can be customized.
The latest update proposed by Facebook about the profile settings:
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg focused that one’s Facebook profile is a “social norm” that should be shared with others to increase the socializing. But the privacy setting is for the convenience of those who are not comfortable with this. If you don’t want other people to share your details and activities, there is however nothing wrong. The new setting is not for disturbing your privacy, but to show you how your privacy can be violated. The latest additions are:
- The most important addition is that Facebook has focused on a per-post customization. Every photo you update, every status you make, every video you share will offer you a drop box, so that you can select who will see that update on your timeline.
- New tracking software is now used so that you can tag your friends by the suggestion that Facebook will provide by tallying your profile picture.
- Earlier you did not have the access to delete a picture where you were tagged in. Now a single click will let you remove the picture entirely.
- You can now block those who disturb you by either stopping them only from sending you an app invitation, or block permanently from being connected to you in any way, not even by sending you a friend request further.
The bad:
The current city, gender and other information are now public and you can’t change that. This is really awful. Even the previous option to customize, who can see your list of friends, is now removed. Although you find the customization option as showing your friend list as “0” or “show my friends on my profile”, it is very hard to find on the profile page. If Facebook’s intention was to make the settings easier, they have fallen flat on this and turned many of its users red.
But the good!
The good thing is that socialization is broader now. All these updates are to make the people, who were not updating their profiles and were blindly following the default settings. If you are one of them, then please wake up from your sleep and utilize what Facebook has to offer! In a way, you are getting to have a more specific control over all of your information and updates. But nobody is concerned about you. It’s your privacy that Facebook is concerned about. If you don’t change your settings and live a ‘default for a lifetime’ mode, then it is your fault!
