Finer Points of Facebook

That's right the magic F of Facebook once again looms in our blog - so what have they done this time?  Well there is of course the new timeline feature which will soon be launched to all FB users.  According to this article in the Huffington Post, the timeline on FB will now allows users to keep all data they have posted right back to the account being opened.

Previous to this, posts and profile data would simply "fall off" after a certain time.  Now with timeline everything will be kept.  Facebook is even encouraging users to add data from before Facebook!!   The new timeline feature means that it is now more important than ever to make sure you consider thoroughly what you post as all this data will be archived and searchable. Our Message? Check Privacy Settings Once Again!!  It seems that whenever Facebook has come out with a new feature there are some privacy issues.  It may mean that you should go back into your privacy settings and make sure they are set up as you need them to be.  This video set takes you some through some of the ways you can check your account settings. Click here if you can't see the video embedded below.

Facebook Face Recognition - More Control of your Image Slipping Away?

Photos Gone Wild!!  Facebook have done it again - adding face recognition software to the range of tools.  Called Tag Suggestions, the program digitally scans the faces in photos and suggests who they are so that you can tag them. The company claims that this feature makes it a lot easier for users to label and share photos. But it also makes it a lot easier for teens' online identity to get away from them. So What? Let's say you go to a party and everyone is snapping away photos on their mobile.  Next day thanks to Facebook, face recognition and easy tagging your "party experiences" are being broadcast across the Internet.  Is this what you want? Can you rely on your friends' to know, understand and to have set appropriate privacy settings?  What about their friends, or the friends of those friends?  While Facebook does notify users when they're tagged -- after the fact -- you still have to go in and un-tag yourself if you don't want to be identified. Facebook is a leaky bucket people, no matter how you configure your privacy settings!   You may have a case of photos gone wild and need to find ways to combat them!! The message here is NOT, "Don't share photos on Facebook", but "Think about what photos you share on Facebook and the impact they may have on you and your friends should they be seen by a different audience".  Increasingly universities and employers are using social networking to get an understanding of the person they are interviewing.  Showing an interviewer your Facebook page can even be part of an interview process. Treat the Internet as the most public space in the world and let that guide your attitudes and behaviours there.  Then you won't go far wrong. How to Disable Tag Suggestions From your Facebook page, click on Account. Choose Privacy Settings. Click on Customize Settings. Scroll down to Things Others Share. Next to Suggest photos of me to friends, click on Edit Settings. Click on Disabled and click Okay. You can also go a step further and bar Facebook from using your image to compare photos altogether by sending a note to the company.