Monday, June 17, 2013

How to Monitor the Privacy of Your Facebook


           Social media sites have become a major part of everyday life in today’s society.  It is now the social norm to communicate through various online mediums.  I think it’s safe to say that one of the most popular social media websites is Facebook.  In a study titled, A Functional Approach to Social Networking Sites, it is noted that Facebook, “[…] reached 100 million active users in August2008 and proceeded to quadruple this membership and surpass 400 million active users by July 2010.”(Bryant, Marmo, Rameirez, 2009)  This social media website started off as an outlet for college students to connect with each other and by the numbers just stated it is clear that this site is vastly evolving.  Facebook has been embraced by almost everyone from grandparents to young children.  Facebook is a place where you can post pictures, update statues, write messages on a friends wall, and so on.  In the past I have always been careful when posting on Facebook in order to portray myself a certain way to my peers.  As the years have past I have to be even more cautious about my post due to the number of relatives and family friends, who have joined and befriended me on Facebook.

            I know many of us have those few friends who we wish we could delete from our Facebooks, maybe yours is your mom, aunt, or little sister.  Not that you don’t want them to be able to tag you in pictures and write on your wall but you might not want them to see everything that your peers post or even everything that you post.  So far I haven’t had to deal with my parents joining Facebook but I do have to worry about my mom’s best friend and other relatives.  There has been multiple times where my mom’s friend or my relatives have informed my mom that I had an ‘inappropriate’ picture on Facebook.  My mom would be told that my skirt was too short, or my Halloween costume was showing too much skin.  Then I would have to show my mom the pictures, and almost every time my mom was ok with the pictures, because like I said I’m very careful with what I post and how I portray myself on Facebook.  Even though my mom would be ok with my pictures she would still insists that I remove the pictures from my page so her friends or my relatives would not comment about it anymore. 

            Having to worry about every little thing on my Facebook began to really upset me.  I got a Facebook so I could comfortably communicate with my friends and share pictures with them.  Having to worry about my conservative relatives judgments made want to deactivate my page all together.  So I began to look into monitoring who sees what on my Facebook.  It can be tricky because as we all know Facebook is always changing.  For me it is worth it to always make the adjustments I need too in terms of monitoring who see what on my Facebook page.  Ever since I have done this I have not had any problems with family friends or relatives going to my mom with annoying comments about my pictures.  Also, for many adults, who might not have to worry about upsetting family friends, but might have a job that they need to present themselves in a certain way Facebook can cause problems such as the ones I had.  When monitoring your Facebook post there can be many benefits.  With Facebook being for many in our society an essential part of everyday life I feel it is important to monitor who sees what on your page.

            One of the most important things to monitor now days is pictures.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words and on Facebook pictures can be posted of you without your consent and you can also be tagged in pictures.  With that being said monitoring what pictures that you are tagged in can be helpful.  The following steps can lead you to monitoring what pictures you are tagged in on Facebook.

·         Sign in to the Facebook account you want to monitor

·         Click the asterisk at the top far right of any Facebook page and select Account Settings

·         In the left-hand column, click Timeline and Tagging

·         Look for the setting Review tags friends add to your own posts on Facebook? and click Edit to the far right

·         Select Enabled from the dropdown menu

By following these easy steps you can monitor what pictures you are tagged in on your Facebook account.  When you turn the tag review on, you will be set up to receive a notification anytime when someone tags you a picture. You will then be able to either approve or ignore the tag request after viewing the photo you are tagged in.  It is important to keep in mind that when you approve a tag, the person tagged and their friends may be able to view your post. If you don't want your post to be visible to the friends of the person tagged, you can adjust this setting. Simply click on the audience selector next to the story, select Custom, and uncheck the Friends of those tagged and event guests box.  This can help you with being tagged in unwanted pictures that others may post of you so that they are never directly linked to your Facebook page.  Not everyone has your same sense of privacy and others including your friends may post pictures online of you that you would never post yourself.

   Then you have to worry about pictures you post and who can view them.  Being in college there are times when I have wanted to post pictures for my friends to see that might not be inappropriate to me or even my peers but can be inappropriate in the eyes of family friends or relatives, especially being from parts of the south that are conservative.   In order to make sure only people such as your peers able to see pictures you post on your Facebook follow the steps below.

  • Sign in to the Facebook account you want to monitor
  • Go to your timeline and click on the Photos section
  • Click the Albums tab
  • Use the audience selector tool under each album to control who can see your photos

It is important to be aware that not all of your photos are completely private because the privacy setting for your Cover Photos album is always available to the public.  Also, if there is a photo of you in an album posted by another person of Facebook, the person who posted the photo is the only one who can change the privacy settings of that album. If for some reason you don't approve of the photo, you can simply remove the tag, ask the person nicely to take it down, or report to the photo to Facebook.  Although, each time you personally post a new photo, you have the option to monitor who views that photo by utilizing the audience selector.

There also are other aspects of your Facebook page that you may need to monitor other than just pictures.  There are ways to control who sees your page's posts.  To monitor your post you can limit your post’s audience so only certain people will be able to see it.  To limit or target your posts, make sure your Page has post privacy gating turned on.  To turn this privacy setting on follow these easy steps below.

·         Sign in to the Facebook account you want to monitor

·         From the top of your Page, click Edit Page 

·         Select Edit Settings

·         Check the box next to Post privacy gating

·         Click Save Changes

  By monitoring who sees what pictures or reads your posts this can help keep your social life separate from your family life and other aspects as well, in terms of Facebook.  Social networks have become a way of for many and often times it is hard to keep various faucets of your life separate on these sites, but when utilizing these privacy settings it can be beneficial.

 

 

3 comments:

  1. The blog “How to Monitor the Privacy of Your Facebook” by Caroline Roberts addresses social media and one of the main problems that comes with being involved. The main issue in this informative blog is about the privacy behind user accounts on social media websites. Roberts specifically refers to the social media site, Facebook, in her blog. Roberts states how popular Facebook had become over time with sources that kept track of member activity on the website. Roberts states, “Facebook has been embraced by almost everyone from grandparents to children.” Based on this statement, the reader may infer that Roberts hints in the statement that the issue begins there. Roberts does not say directly, but it is understood that the more popular the site became, the higher the risk of unwanted viewers.
    Roberts addresses personal experiences with the issue of privacy as an example of why Facebook popularity can be an issue. Roberts specifically talks about times when she could not post a picture or be tagged in one without some relative or friend of her parents confronting her mother about the picture. Despite the fact that her mother did not mind the pictures, the consistency of friends and family confronting Roberts’s mother became a nuisance for both Roberts and her mother. Roberts’s mother finally began telling Roberts to delete these pictures every time one came up, just to avoid conflict. This soon became a problem for Roberts until she finally decided to do something about the tough situation. Roberts’s wanted to avoid the awkward tension of deleting friends yet still wanted to post pictures without an issue arising. Her best solution was to resort to the “Privacy Settings” section of Facebook.
    Roberts informs readers of what a privacy setting is and the many different ways it may be used. She also breaks user privacy down into picture and wall post settings. After listing different settings, Roberts then proceeds to describe how to get to and operate the different privacy settings and that’s the key. Knowing how to use the privacy settings can help users avoid uncomfortable situations; although at times, trying to figure out how to use the settings can be difficult with Facebook continually changing and upgrading them (Cranor 2013). This can result in users mistakenly believing that they are sharing information and photos with whom they choose, such as friends and family. However just like Roberts, they soon find out they have “opened their lives to the world” (Cranor 2013). By learning how to use the privacy settings users gain control over who can see their post (Cranor 2013). As a new Facebook user, privacy settings are something I need to familiarize myself with and use.










    Works Cited
    Cranor, L. (2013) Wall Street Journal. A Guide to Facebook

    Privacy. Retrieved July 10, 2013

    http://online.wsj.com/article


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  3. The word Facebook at one point in time was a foreign word to most individuals that barely used a computer or the Internet. Now it is a common vocabulary word used in everyday conversation between millions of people all over the world. Facebook has allowed people to connect, reconnect, and maintain relationships through the use of sharing photos, statuses, and information to one another. However, what you put on Facebook can also help identity thieves still your identity. Facebook privacy is very important, and so is what you post.
    Frank Abagnale is one of the worlds most known identity thieves, and he hopes to warn Facebook users about the risks they are taking on their Facebook profiles. While Facebook makes it easy for one to decide who sees what and what is posted on one’s timeline, there are other factors that many don’t think about. According to the article, “Facebook Users Risk Identity Theft”, just by posting your birthdate and hometown can put you at a greater risk for having your identity stolen (Olivares & Reuters 2013). Once a year on my birthday I receive hundreds of wall posts from my Facebook friends hoping that I have a great birthday. It’s the best day of the year. Unfortunately, my birthday just being listed puts me at a greater risk of suffering from identity theft. Frank Abagnale believes that everyone should refrain from putting their birthday on any social media site due to the risks. Anyone can keep someone from stealing his or her identity. It is very simple. Do not put your birthday or hometown on your Facebook profile.
    Facebook privacy is also very important due to the new development of identify thieves. Unlike Frank Abagnale who had to go through a lot of trouble to make checks and identification cards, those that use Facebook can do it in less than a day with very little work involved. “Facebook Profile Cloning” is the new identity thief process. This is a very common scam that millions of Facebook users are unaware of. This process is done by a thief stealing cover photos, profile pictures and information about a user and creating a new profile that looks exactly like the users. According to the article, “Beware: Facebook Profile Cloning Identity Theft”, this new form of identity theft scam does not include hacking into accounts ("Beware: Facebook profile" 2013). The new Facebook will then add all of the friends that the user has also befriended on Facebook as well as all of the fan pages a user has “liked” ("Beware: Facebook profile" 2013). Scammers then use the profile to receive money from a friend of the profile.
    Due to identity theft being an increasing occurrence it is important to limit what you put on your Facebook profile and also what you allow friends and the public to see on your account. While it might be nice to show everyone your birthday, school, and hometown information it is also setting one up for identity theft. It is important to be aware of what you post on Facebook and how it could help someone become you without even knowing you.








    Works Cited
    (2013). Beware: Facebook profile cloning identity theft. Retrieved from http://www.w3bsecurity.com/beware-facebook-profile-cloning-identity-theft/

    Reuters. & Olivares, P. (2013, March 21). Facebook users risk identity theft. . Retrieved from http://rt.com/usa/facebook-users-risk-identity-theft-575/

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