Monday, May 17, 2010

Will there ever be a “Facebook for Dummies” Book?

There is never a dull moment at Twitter.  Just yesterday someone asked, “When are they going to publish a "Facebook Privacy for Dummies" book.”  My reply was that I would bet on never, but this got me thinking about all that has been written already about Facebook’s current Privacy challenges and we already have a book. 
Here is the history of their ever changing Privacy Policy.
Evolution of Privacy Policies on Facebook – a Panel Chart in Excel
By Chandoo, May 13th, 2010
There is a chart called “Evolution of Privacy on Facebook” going around on the web. The chart made by Matt Mckeon, a developer in IBM’s visual communications lab has created quite a stir in the interwebs.
More……
Here is an article on what Facebook passwords not to use.
20 passwords to never use on Facebook
By Josh Smith, May 14th 2010
Excerpt....
In addition to those poorly-chosen passwords we've come up with our own list of 10 words or phrases not to use as your Facebook password.
  • Employer info
  • School name
  • School mascot
  • Names of groups, artists or shows you "Like" on Facebook
  • Spouses name or birthday
  • Banking passwords
  • E-mail password
  • No dictionary based words -- even those in a different language
  • Pet's name if you post captioned pictures to your profile
  • Anything you might answer in a Facebook quiz
Creating a strong password doesn't have to be a chore or difficult to remember. Simply adding a number and a punctuation mark greatly increase the strength of a password. You can also use a phrase, condensed to a string of words and numbers, as an easy-to-remember secure password. For example, "WalletPop is my #1 Personal Finance Blog!" becomes the "Wim#1PFb!".
More…….
and….
This article is jammed with links to more information on Facebook Privacy.  First, to convince people that they are sharing information with the world there is Openbook.org and Zesty.ca.  It links you to an article about how to delete your Facebook account.  If deletion is something you choose not to do, it includes a chart that maps out how to find all the hidden Privacy settings in Facebook.
Facebook Privacy: Secrets Unveiled
By JR Raphael, PC World, May 16, 2010
Excerpt....
Thanks to a couple of handy new tools, you can now check out exactly what Facebook is telling the world about you -- and about everyone else. First up is Openbook, a project created by three computer geeks from San Francisco.  Openbook lets you search through Facebook's publicly available user data to find out what everyone is saying.
Excerpt....
So what to do? You can always say so long to Facebook, of course. Or you can choose to stay with the site and simply be vigilant about protecting your privacy. It isn't easy, but it can be done.
You can see what Facebook shares with the world about you by using this free tool at zesty.ca; just input your Facebook user ID or account number (found by looking at the URL for your Facebook profile page), then click through the fields to see what's actually public. The tool won't take into account info that could be shared by applications or Facebook's "instant personalization" feature, but it's a start.
After that, get ready to dig. This daunting chart breaks down all of the categories of settings you'll need to review (hint: be sure to clear out a couple hours of your afternoon). This story provides a slightly less overwhelming summary of the main settings you should revisit. And this one goes through some additional steps you'll want to take to address the aforementioned new "instant personalization" options.
More.......
Now you have the start of a “Facebook for Dummies” book.  That is of course until it changes again because change is the only constant in life or in Facebook Privacy.

I just wanted to add that this will help you manage the instant personalization feature on Facebook.

ReclaimPrivacy.org

This website provides an independent and open tool for scanning your Facebook privacy settings. 

and-

The scanner operates entirely within your own browser.
 More.....

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