How to Manage the Latest Facebook Privacy Faux Pas
Facebook may face the Federal Trade Commission over yet another privacy concern. This time, it's about Timeline. Timeline is the name for Facebook's new design that presents a user's shared information in a chronological, scrollable format that is arguably more aesthetically pleasing and definitely more exposed.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center is asking the FTC to examine how Timeline changes a user's privacy settings and how Facebook handles privacy through obscurity. Privacy through obscurity refers to the idea that data is more secure if it is more difficult to access. On profiles not using Timeline, anyone who wanted to view older information would have to scroll and click "Older Posts" continually until reaching the desired post. As a result, locating a status update from 2006 would take a very long time. Most casual Facebook stalkers would get bored.
With Timeline, finding information added from any year is as easy as clicking on that year in the timeline on the right side of the profile. In seconds, you can find a snapshot into someone's life at any time since joining the social network. You can even find pre-Facebook events, like the user's birth or the birth of people listed as family members.
None of this should be alarming to users who monitor their Facebook privacy. However, Timeline also changes certain default privacy preferences. It is no longer possible, at least for now, to not show all friending stories by default. You can still hide them individually after the fact, and you can hide all the friend stories in a time period by navigating to that period in the timeline.
Facebook's response to the privacy concerns has been to claim that Timeline has nothing to do with privacy, because all of the information has been shown to friends before through the Newsfeed and old information has always been available to new friends.
While this is true, it seems unlikely that most recent friends would go through the trouble of scrolling to all the old stories. With Timeline, it's temptingly easy to take a look into a new friend's old life.
Timeline does make it easier to customize the look and feel of your Facebook profile, and it's always good to have a reason to check up on your privacy settings. If you do choose to install Timeline, browse through your Timeline and make sure you want to share the things you are sharing with the people who can see them. Facebook allows you to keep it private for a week before publishing your Timeline to replace the old profile. It is possible to limit the audience of past posts shared with the public or friends of friends to be shared with friends only. You can do this under Privacy Settings; otherwise, you have to do it for individual posts.
In IdentitySmart, our identity monitoring system that functions as a dashboard for your online and offline identity, you can easily see what is currently visible on your Facebook profile and manage your privacy settings in one place.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center is asking the FTC to examine how Timeline changes a user's privacy settings and how Facebook handles privacy through obscurity. Privacy through obscurity refers to the idea that data is more secure if it is more difficult to access. On profiles not using Timeline, anyone who wanted to view older information would have to scroll and click "Older Posts" continually until reaching the desired post. As a result, locating a status update from 2006 would take a very long time. Most casual Facebook stalkers would get bored.
With Timeline, finding information added from any year is as easy as clicking on that year in the timeline on the right side of the profile. In seconds, you can find a snapshot into someone's life at any time since joining the social network. You can even find pre-Facebook events, like the user's birth or the birth of people listed as family members.
None of this should be alarming to users who monitor their Facebook privacy. However, Timeline also changes certain default privacy preferences. It is no longer possible, at least for now, to not show all friending stories by default. You can still hide them individually after the fact, and you can hide all the friend stories in a time period by navigating to that period in the timeline.
Facebook's response to the privacy concerns has been to claim that Timeline has nothing to do with privacy, because all of the information has been shown to friends before through the Newsfeed and old information has always been available to new friends.
While this is true, it seems unlikely that most recent friends would go through the trouble of scrolling to all the old stories. With Timeline, it's temptingly easy to take a look into a new friend's old life.
Timeline does make it easier to customize the look and feel of your Facebook profile, and it's always good to have a reason to check up on your privacy settings. If you do choose to install Timeline, browse through your Timeline and make sure you want to share the things you are sharing with the people who can see them. Facebook allows you to keep it private for a week before publishing your Timeline to replace the old profile. It is possible to limit the audience of past posts shared with the public or friends of friends to be shared with friends only. You can do this under Privacy Settings; otherwise, you have to do it for individual posts.
In IdentitySmart, our identity monitoring system that functions as a dashboard for your online and offline identity, you can easily see what is currently visible on your Facebook profile and manage your privacy settings in one place.
