Facebook Places: What Users Should Know About its Default Privacy Settings
Posted by on September 12th, 2010 0
Posted in Search News, Social Media |
Facebook Places, the geo-location service that was discussed in a previous article, uses maps to find places and people, and can also be accessed through mobile devices through iPhone apps. This article deals with the privacy pitfall this service poses to its users.
Facebook is known for having some privacy issues, unless the user changes his settings and this services is no exception. While Places is a good way to find people and locations, there are tweaks you must do to ensure you keep unwanted eyes from knowing your whereabouts.
Facebook, having learned from its privacy mistakes, has made it easier for users to tweak the privacy options of Places. Users should know however, that the service has been automatically set to let users’ friends (and people near their location) know about their current location.
To change the privacy settings, simply follow this guide:
- Go to Account. It is located on the top right of the Facebook page, next to Home and Profile. Of course, you need to login first to access this.
- Click Privacy Settings.
- Click on the Custom option and choose customize.
- Edit the Places I Check Into option. If you want to keep your location private, change the settings from “Friends Only” to “Me.”
- Uncheck the Enable checkbox to disable the “Include Me in ‘People Here Now’ After I Check In” option.
- Save your settings.
Despite these concerns, Facebook Places can be a good opportunity for individuals to meet up at certain places and catch up on things. Indeed, this service proves to be a step forward to incorporating social media into our daily lives.
