Facebook have carried through a threat to remove a privacy setting which kept user names out of the social network’s graph search.
Users who use the “Who can look up your timeline by name?” feature will be notified of its removal.
What does this mean?
Facebook says that a “small percentage” of its users, who use the feature, will now be found on Facebook’s search engines when their names are punched into the search bar.
Facebook is trying to encourage people to control privacy settings through a post-by-post basis.
What can I do now?
Whenever and whatever you post up onto your profile should be checked as to whether it’s for public view, friends or specific friends.
You may also want to think about ‘timeline approval’ which shows you what your friends may be posting with regards to location and who you’re with.
Facebook has settings that let you review posts and photo tags before they’re posted to your timeline.
How can I be more savy when it comes to privacy?
Another option within Facebook’s privacy settings allows users to disable search engines from linking to their timelines.
That will at least cut down on the chance of someone looking for your profile outside the social network via a post.
Facebook says – “things you hide from your timeline still appear in news feed, search and other places on Facebook.”
They include some things you just can’t hide, namely profile pictures and cover photos, but also some news feed activity.
What do you think about the new privacy settings?