Facebook and privacy have been a concern, but even more so since the release of latest changes at the F8 conference. Furthermore, to compound the privacy issue, Facebook have been caught sending user data to advertisers.
Here is are two free Facebook privacy checking tools, I shall bring you through both:
The first tool is Reclaimprivacy.org – all instructions are on the page.
Here are the basic steps:
Bookmark the page, then go to your Facebook privacy settings and run the “scan for privacy” book marked page. This then gives a straightforward report based on the scan. Here is a screenshot of my “scan for privacy” report. It gives simple actions if required to secure your account. It shows what it checked, and tell you what is secure and what is not. As you can see from the below, I need to take action to stop friends from accidental sharing my personal information.
The second tool is rabidgremlin Facebook privacy check
With this tool you just go to the page : rabidgremlin Facebook privacy check and you connect to your account via Facebook Connect and allow the application to access your account.
This gave me a score and I got 15 oout of 21. Here are my results:
Finally, just to note, that 100% privacy is probably not a good thing, you need just need to understand what you are sharing and to whom you are sharing this information with.
Social networks are about sharing, and there is no point in having a profile and not been able to share anything but you need to be logical, and also be aware of you level of exposure, and these tools should help you. Furthermore, the simple rule of “if you don’t want someone to know something, then don’t write it down (or post it in the form of text, pictures, videos etc.)” applies to all online social networks.
