Graph Search is Facebook's bold new way
of browsing the social network, letting you call up photos of your
family in California, restaurants your friends like in New York, or any
public updates from Gizmodo employees who also like hot air ballooning.
It's been available the last several months in beta, but today it starts
rolling out to Facebook at large. And in the wrong hands, it can be the
ultimate stalker search engine.
Graph
Search is useful, but it's also a little bit terrifying if you don't
know how to protect yourself. Here are the settings you need to adjust
today to keep the Facebook creepers away.
It's
important first to take a few moments to work out how you want to use
Facebook. Your friends might want to utilize Graph Search to know which
bars you recommend, or which brands you like, or what happened when you
visited Venice — is this information you're happy to share, or not?
That's going to affect how much of the below you can take or leave. But
given the pervasiveness of Graph Search, we suggest you take.
1. Protecting your future posts
Any update
or publish box you see on Facebook, whether you're using a mobile app or
the desktop site, will have an audience selector drop-down menu with
it. This menu controls who can see what you're about to post — options
include "Public" (anyone can see it), "Friends" (only confirmed friends
can see it) and "Only Me" (no one but you can see it, useful for those
times you're feeling confessional). These settings apply across the
board, whether someone is casually browsing your Timeline or using the
full-fat high-powered Graph Search to run queries.
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The audience selector lets you specify who can and can't see your content
Thankfully,
the audience selector remembers your most recent setting, so if you can
come up with a configuration you're happy with for any and everything,
you can leave it in place for the future.
For more
granular control, select the "Custom" option. This allows you to specify
certain friends or lists of friends who can see your updates. It also
lets you specify certain friends or lists of friends who can't. To sort
your contacts into lists, follow the "Friends" link from your own
Timeline. Rather than categorizing all of the hundreds of people who
appear here, consider creating two lists: one for those who don't mind
sharing everything with, and one for those who you'd rather didn't see
anything.
Facebook in
fact already has two lists already set up for exactly this purpose
purpose: "Close Friends," who will show up more often in your news feed,
and "Restricted." Anyone in your restricted list (such as your boss or
your moralizing grandmother) will be unable to see your Facebook updates
unless you specify them as "Public" from the audience selector. It's a
useful shortcut for dealing with all the Facebook friends you're not
really friends with.
A quick
note on tagging. When you tag any of your friends in a photo, check-in,
update or any other activity, they can then see that content
irrespective of the audience selector setting. By default, their friends
can see it too, which is why people you don't know may sometimes
comment on your status or one of your pictures. You can disable this
behavior using the "Custom" option from the audience selector. It can
also be disabled on your friend's end, but the feature is switched on by
default, so be aware.
2. Protecting your current posts
The
audience selector drop-down appears next to everything you've put on
your Timeline too; the books you like, the places you've worked, even
your list of friends. Head to your Timeline and click "Update info" to
find all of the options. If you don't want to show up in some weirdo's
Graph Search for your hometown, for example, limit the audience for that
particular piece of information. You can also control who can see the
Pages you've liked (from restaurants to clothing stores). Use the
"Activity log" button on your Timeline to review all of your Likes, and
remove anything you're not happy with.
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Use the Update info box to change the visibility of information on your Timeline
Facebook
includes a built-in tool for limiting the visibility of previous posts
set as "Public" or "Friends of friends." Click the cog icon on the
toolbar (at the top of every Facebook screen), then choose "Privacy
Settings." On the next screen select "Limit Past Posts." Read the
confirmation message and select "Limit Old Posts" to restrict everything
you've ever posted to friends only.
If you'd
rather use a scalpel than a sledgehammer, you can adjust the audience
settings of any specific past post by scrolling back through your
Timeline and tweaking them one by one.
3. Protecting yourself from your friends
Of course,
your own updates are only half the story on Facebook. There's all the
stuff your friends are posting on your Timeline and tagging you in, from
embarrassing events to incriminating photos. All these updates and
pictures belong to your friends, which means they control the
audience—and who can find them on Graph Search. Still, you're not
totally powerless. You can prevent these posts from appearing on your
own Timeline, and restrict the ways in which you can be tagged. This in
turn limits your exposure on Graph Search.
Open
your "Account Settings" page from the cog icon drop-down menu at the
top of any Facebook page, then choose "Timeline and Tagging." From here
you can set up a "review posts" feature that lets you approve or block
any attempts to tag you. You can also specify who is able to see posts
you're tagged in, and posts on your own Timeline. Adjust these privacy
settings now, and they'll be waiting for you once Graph Search goes
Facebook-wide. Note: It's come to our attention that this actually
just hides things from your timeline, but doesn't keep them from being
pushed out to others. The best way to lock this stuff down is actually
to go review your Activity Log.
Shortcuts
to some of the features we've talked about can be found by clicking on
the padlock icon on the Facebook toolbar (at the top of every page).
You'll find a master audience selector setting under the "Who can see my
stuff?" heading, for example.
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Use the shortcuts menu to make quick changes
It's likely
that your Facebook friends fall into two camps — those who you're happy
to share most of your life with, and those who you're friends with out
of necessity or obligation. A few tweaks to your privacy settings can
make Graph Search very useful to the former group, while limiting the
amount of spying the latter group or Facebook users in general can carry
out.
If you have any more Facebook privacy rules or tips to share, let us know below!
Paul A Smith
Work With Me
PS: Book Your Travel And Receive CASHBACK!!!!
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