Facebook’s New Privacy Shortcut Settings

Facebook’s New Search Engine. Graph Search. Good for business. Bad for Privacy!

With the soon to be released Facebook Graph Search just being announced, it is now imperative that you have the privacy level you want on Facebook. If you thought Timeline was a shock with how easy it was for people to scroll through and see back through your timeline posts, Graph Search is going to be worse.

Why?

Here’s an example: If someone is looking for a single girl on the Northern Beaches who goes to the Mona Hotel on Friday nights, and you fit the bill, as seen through your personal posts and public profile on Facebook…don’t be surprised if a talk dark creepy stranger, who happens to “like” the same movies, books and sports as you, tries to pick you up one Friday night at your favourite pub! If you have no privacy settings and are posting publicly then “Tall Dark and Creepy” can find you by simply typing, “Single woman northern beaches Mona Vale Hotel” in the the new Facebook Graph Search.

More Scammers and Spamers?

At the very least, having inadequate Facebook privacy settings will put you even more squarely within the clutches of marketers, advertisers and business’s wanting to sell you stuff… or rip you off. If you have your email address/mobile phone listed on your Facebook page also, be prepared for a LOT more email and SMS scams sent your way that will look so real that they will be hard to tell from the real thing. Scammers and spammers will use all your personal details found publicly on your profile, your name, location, age, phone number, friends, the name of where you are employed…the list goes on. This makes it so easy to address scam emails directly to you, that look like a referral from a friend. If they know what you “like” they can target the scam directly to your needs and preferences.

Facebook’s New Privacy Settings Layout

Facebook have recently changed the look and location of their privacy settings. The privacy settings used to be in the same location all under privacy from one menu, but they have now split them all up. Facebook also now offer a “Privacy Shortcut” menu, that provides only the very basic privacy settings. If activated correctly these basic settings still allow for a lot of sharing of your data with 3rd party advertisers and others you don’t know. So rely on these only if you are in a hurry and don’t have time to go into the back settings of Facebook to set up more secure and advanced ones.

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For those interested in understanding the basic ones located in the “Privacy Shortcut” menu I’ve just created a step by step explanation of the settings and how they should be set up for best security. I will be doing an advanced Facebook Privacy setting video soon so keep an eye out for that!