Follow
Thursday, Facebook revealed a fresh Privacy Settings draft page meant for its fans and users, a document which is simpler, shorter and very fun to read. It is basically a tutorial containing highlighted text, animations and plain, understandable English. The new Facebook Privacy page tutorial teaches users how to set the privacy of your profile and posts, how to tag and block, what to share and with whom. It will teach you to apply settings on what people see about you, what you see about others and how to interact with others.
This Privacy Basics tutorial comes with detailed explanations on how to unfollow people and how to set your private posts. You are able also to set what ads you see, in an attempt to give users more control over the advertisement exposure they are submitted to.
“Our goal is to make Facebook as clear as possible. Our hope is that it won’t take long for people to read through this and really get it.”
This is what Facebook officials told the Wall Street Journal, boasting their new approach to become even more user – friendly than they already are. And now, with the new Facebook Privacy Page and guidelines, you can safely post embarrassing night – out pictures on your timeline, without fearing that the first one to stumble upon them are your parents.
But Facebook didn’t reveal only a user – friendly, colored privacy settings walkthrough. It also presented us with a Data Policy page that is scary. This page, which lacks cute graphics and colored headings, contains a heap of paragraphs describing the personal data Facebook gathers about each user. And this personal info has no settings to be controlled or supervised by you.
The issue is not about what other people see about you, but what Facebook sees about you, and it sees everything: dates and locations of your photos, contacts book, credit card details if you shop through the platform, web – browsing habits, mobile apps usage and so on.
Why should you care what Facebook sees about you? The company believes nobody has anything to worry about, as they don’t disclose your personal data to third – party advertisers. However, recent studies show that having their personal dossier in the hands of a social network makes 80% of U.S. adults using social networks feel very unsafe.
If you are concerned with Facebook privacy in terms of having your behavior tracked by advertisers in order to be targeted with personalized ads, read the Data Policy carefully and click on all hyper-linked words. There are some back doors you can use to keep yourself more protected, but keep in mind that no system is infallible.
Luckily for everybody, there is a 7 – days frame allowing public comment on the Data Policy page, so if you have any concerns about your Facebook privacy, now it’s the time to speak your mind.
