Life’s Curveballs

Facebook has done a pretty good job with their privacy settings if you know how to use them.  I decided to put some instructions together for those that want the straight and skinny on privatizing their Facebook account.

For those of us that play a lot of games on Facebook, we may have hundreds of friends.  As of this writing I have over 600 friends and most of them are game friends.  After you add a friend to a game, you are not required to keep the friend in you Facebook account.  However, they can be a good resource if you decided to play multiple games because some will also play multiple games.  Additionally, it’s a good way to communicate and get help if you need it in a game.

Privacy Concerns

Having a few hundred gaming friends does lead to privacy concerns because you don’t really know these people.  Granted, some will become close friends even if you never actually meet them, but most will not, so you may not want them to know your phone numbers, address, or other personal information.  At the same time, you may have family members and/or close friends that you do want to have access to your personal information.

I have found the easiest way to take care of these concerns is to create two groups of friends.  Facebook calls these groups ‘List’ so I will use List from this point on.  You can create more than two Lists but as the number of friends grow it becomes harder to manage.  For most people, I think two Lists are sufficient.  Making a List is easy, just click on ‘Friends’ on the Facebook bar.  If you haven’t made a List you should just see ‘All Friends’ on the ‘Friends’ List on the left side of the page.  Clicking on ‘Make a New List’ does just that, it makes a new List.   I have called my two Lists Facebook Family and Game Friends.  No matter what you called the Lists, think of them as the people that you want to see everything and the people who you want to limit what they see.  Hence, the names I have given my lists, Facebook Family and Game Friends. Once you have your Lists, it is time to start adding friends to them.

To add people to your lists just click on first list and either start typing the names, or if you have a lot of friends it may be easier to click on ‘Select Multiple Friends.’  If you select ‘Select Multiple Friends’ you will see all of your friends with their avatar and name.  Just start clicking on the names to add them to each of your lists and save it.  Once you are done, move your mouse pointer over ‘Settings’ on the Facebook bar and select ‘Privacy Settings’ from the drop down menu.

Privacy Settings

On the Privacy Settings page you will see four links: Profile, Search, News Feed and Wall, and Applications.  My main focus with this post will be for your Profile so you will want to click on ‘Profile.’   On the Profile page you will see a bunch of drop down boxes and you will want to use ‘Custom’ setting for most of the drop downs.  Selecting ‘Custom’ from the drop down box brings up a dialog box, and most of the time you will be using the option ‘Some Friends.’  Here is how my Profile page is set for the Basic settings (yours may be different depending on what you want your friends to see):

• Profile - Friends Only
• Basic Info - Friends Only except for Game Friends. Select ‘Custom’ from the drop down, then select ‘Friends Only.’ At the bottom of the dialog box under,’ Except These People,’ enter Game Friends or whatever you called your list to limited access.
• Personal Info - Friends Only
• Status Links - Everyone
• Photos Tagged of You - Custom. In the dialog box select, ‘Some Friends,’ and enter Facebook Family or whatever you called your list so that everyone can see. Under the drop down box you will see ‘Edit Photo Albums Privacy Settings.’ If you want to limit what photos are seen click on this link. This page is much like the Profile page with drop down boxes for each album. Select Custom and then select Some Friends and enter Facebook Family for the albums you want your close friends to see.
• Videos Tagged of You - Custom > Some Friends > Facebook Family.
• Friends - Only Friends
• Wall Post - Box checked for, ‘Friends may post to my wall.’ ‘Only Friends’ in the drop down.
• Education Info - Custom > Some Friends > Facebook Family.
• Work Info - Custom > Some Friends > Facebook Family.

Once you are done with this section, click on ‘Save Changes,’ then at the top of the page select, Contact Information.  On the Contact Information page there are more drop downs.  Here are my settings:

• IM Screen Name - Custom > Some Friends > Facebook Family.
• Mobile Phone - Custom > Some Friends > Facebook Family.
• Other Phone - Custom > Some Friends > Facebook Family.
• Current Address - Custom > Some Friends > Facebook Family.
• Website - Only Friends
• Your email address - Custom > Some Friends > Facebook Family.

Once you are done with this section, click on ‘Save Changes.’  You are now done with the ‘Profile’ settings but you will want to test your settings.  At the top of the page there is a box titled, ‘See how a friend sees your profile.’  Enter a Facebook Family member in the box and press enter to see what that person will see.  Do the same for Game Friends.  If all is well you can make other privacy settings by going back to the main Privacy page and selecting each of the other settings i.e., Search, News Feed and Wall, and Applications.  The settings in these areas are self explanatory if you slowly go through each and read the pages.

I hope this helps make you feel a little more secure on Facebook.  Also, don’t forget when adding friends, make sure to put them in the right list.

Larry