Yeah. You need to deal.
If you “learn more” about Timeline, you will have a 7-day limit before your Timeline goes live. It’s a ticking time bomb. So whether you have one or not right now, you will definitely have one a week after your curiosity kills you. It’s just a matter of hours before you have no choice in the matter. It may worry you, but don’t worry too much. Here are some tips to make sure you’re as safe and private as you would like to be.
1. Don’t add a private photo as your “Cover”.
Covers are viewable by the public. Meaning…anyone who finds your profile on Facebook can see it. Even if you’re not searchable by “everyone” — if one of your friends is — and has a visible friends list, then you may be found if the user chooses to scroll down the friends list to come across your name. Beware.
2. Remove the 80s from your Timeline if you don’t want the whole world to know your age.
Ok, the truth is, if you’re over 24, you’re likely not to want your birthdate on Facebook. When you “change date” on your photos, what Timeline does, is that it adds them as well as all other “events” to your line all the way down to something called “born”. If you start adding photos of you from 1983, and don’t specify that you are born then…Facebook will place your birth prior to 1983, informing all of your friends and the public that you are born before ’83, and everyone will realize you’re in your 30s or what not. Anyway, if you don’t want that info public, remove these events from the 80s. It also shows who your parents are, and when your siblings were born if they’ve put up a date. Yes, the public sees your entire Timeline — although the contents may not be visible, your birthdate will.
3. Realize that there is something called Activity Log.
Don’t freak out. When you click on Activity Log, it will show you everything you’ve ever done on Facebook. Every measly comment you made, every wallpost, every poke (ok, no, just kidding)… These are available to you, but not the public, and not your friends. If you don’t want them to ever appear on your Timeline (a.k.a to the whole world), then make sure you explicitly make that clear by clicking on the little circle on your right and saying “hidden from Timeline” or “delete post”.
4. If you want your post to appear ‘bigger’, then “Feature” it.
There’s a little star above your post, whether it’s a link or status update you are posting. Click on this if you want your event to take up the entire width of the page rather than just one of the two columns.
5. Know that everyone who has common friends with you can see exactly which year you added those friends.
Facebook has kept track of just when exactly — the exact moments — that you added each of your friends. To the t. This allows others to see which year you’ve added which friends. If I don’t know you and your friends are not visible to anyone but you and your friends, and we have 20 common friends, I can see that you added 5 of them in 2007, 15 in 2008, etc. Of course, this is visible to your own friends list as well.
6. You may not be as visible as you like.
What Facebook seems to have done is minimized some stories in the newsfeed depending on users’ preferences in the last months. Your status updates and posts may not be as visible to your friends, in their Newsfeeds as you’d like, unless they’ve subscribed to “All updates” or “Most updates” in the top righthand corner.
7. Everyone can see everywhere you’ve gone.
Have you ever ‘signed in’ to where you are via Places? Or perhaps been tagged in a photo that was geolocated on Facebook? Well, then you’ve got a Map on your upper righthand corner showing the whole world (i.e. the public) everywhere you’ve ever gone. If you don’t want that map there, you need to untag yourself from all of those photos and posts, otherwise they are there for everyone to see.
8. Your Friends list doesn’t appear the same way.
You’ll only see 6 of your friends in your friends box, unless you click on the whole list. Friends are organized by those whom you interact with the most. Facebook tends to track only the comments, wallposts, and other public interactions, but my hunch is that they are also tracking Facebook messages that are exchanged. Be careful! Also, if you want others to ‘appear’ there you will have to do some interacting with them for a while, before they make the cut.
9. Use the “View As” button as often as possible.
When you use “View As” you’re able to see how others see your profile. In order to keep things in shape, view your profile as those on different lists. For instance, if you have some friends on limited profile, view it from their angle, as well as those who see all of your posts.
10. Go to your Privacy Settings, do a check-up.
It’s always good to check that everything has stayed put. Make sure that all of your settings are set to ‘friends’ or ‘custom’ if you don’t want everyone in the whole world to see what you’ve been up to on Facebook.
Now breathe out. The worst is over. Until Facebook comes up with something else.
Cyberbullying blog. 