Check out the Techlicious Facebook Privacy Guide, posted by Josh Kirschner on February 8, 2011 over at the Techlicious website.
Maintaining control over privacy settings is a required and critical technology task for each Facebook user. Since sharing information is one of Facebook’s primary missions, the company wants to collect and share as much personal information as possible with its advertisers. Facebook sets most new features to share data then when they first debut on the site, and to be fair, social networking is all about sharing information. Thus it is up to each individual to determine just how much information to put out there, making conscious decisions about what the world can see, what close friends can view, and what to keep private.
Many of our senior parents and friends are enthusiastic Facebook users, but they do not always focus on the need to pay attention, on a regular basis, to privacy settings. I’ve written several posts, Lots of Seniors on Social Networks and Senior Parents; Maintaining a Bit of Their Privacy in a Digital World that focus on the importance of seniors’ privacy when they engage in digital activities.
Understanding the connection between many social networking sites and advertisers — and the impact it has on a user’s privacy — is critical for everyone, but especially for seniors. It’s a type of media literacy we all need to develop as we navigate around the digital world, because media should not define us — we should do the defining.
Unfortunately, even when users do understand, Facebook makes the process convoluted — requiring users to go to different parts of profile and account just about every time some new bell or whistle arrives on the scene. On my account I’ve needed to adjust these settings more than once over the past twelve months as Facebook adds features and makes changes.
Check out the guide. Not only does it explain what do — handy images illustrations provide extra assistance.
As Our Parents Age So Do We 