UPDATE: Within a week of my posting this article, Facebook started pushing its new privacy settings, which are showing to users that are logging into their profiles. The most important change is the shortcut to the privacy menu, which now appears in the main toolbar on the top of Facebook. Furthermore, it is now easier for users to set individual settings and check who can access their photos and various other data inside their profiles. And now back to my regular post.
Facebook has become one of those sites that people love and hate at the same time. It’s a wonderful way to keep in touch with friends and to reconnect with people you haven’t seen in years. At the same time, it’s one of the most invasive websites out there in regards to privacy.
Most people don’t realize the steps that Facebook takes to target their ads at the right person. Every scrap of personal information you publish is available to them for this use, unless you take steps to keep that from happening. It takes more than some nebulous statement posted on your status about how everything you post is “private and owned by you.” That’s laughable. Don’t fall for that ruse. When you clicked the “I agree” box during your initial sign up with Facebook, you voided that right. All that’s left to you is to attempt to control how they use the information you gave up as a member of Facebook.
The settings are there, hidden deep within your account settings. You still have the ability to assert some level of control. Facebook makes it as hard as possible to find them. Nothing stays the same for long. Menu options change. Locations of settings change. To quote a famous character, “it’s tricksy.”
The following information is borrowed from an article by Kim Komando and the original article can be found here. I will quote her throughout, make a couple of corrections (even the Digital Goddess makes mistakes), and add some pictures.
If you have read any of my other posts, you’ll know I’m an Apple kool-aid drinker. Card carrying and proud.
People often ask me how I got into doing websites. I suppose, since people associate me with vocal music, they don’t see a connection with my musical life and my life of coding. That’s probably because there isn’t one.
I follow a good number of music blogs. It seems that bad news comes out of L.A. or Nashville on a weekly basis. The record labels are scrambling for ways to monetize their artists and sales of physical media are plummeting. Strangely though, sales of vinyl LP’s rose 10% last year, but that’s another blog post.
