Did Facebook recently change privacy settings?
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Millions of users of Meta products, including Facebook and Instagram, are to
receive notifications of the firm's updated privacy policies. Meta says the changes are designed to make it easier to understand how customers' information is used. The company has previously been criticised by regulators and campaigners over its use of customers' data. WhatsApp and some other products are not covered by the update. Meta says the changes won't allow it to "collect, use or share your data in new ways". There are, however, two changes to the way that users can control how their information is processed. A new setting will give people more control over
who can see their posts by default. And existing controls over which adverts users can see are consolidated into a single interface. The company is also updating its terms of service. Michel Protti, Meta's chief privacy officer, said in a blog post it wanted "to better explain what is expected from us and those who
use our platforms". He said that would include when the company may disable or terminate accounts, and extra details about what happens when an account is deleted. Meta says it is also providing more details about the types of third parties with whom it shares and receives information, and how data is shared between its products. Image source, Meta An example notification of the new policy Users do not need to do anything in response to the policy updates to keep using Meta products, but the company says people who do not want to accept the changes "are free to leave our services". The changes, which come into effect on 26 July, are, Meta says, an attempt to reconcile a desire to reduce the complexity of policies, while facing "more demand from regulators and in privacy legislation to be more comprehensive". Meta has faced increasing scrutiny from regulators over how it handles and safeguards user data. In February the company warned that "regulatory headwinds" were likely to cut into future growth. On Monday this week, Karl Racine, the US District of Columbia's attorney general, launched a case against Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg over allegations
linked to the 2016 Cambridge Analytica scandal. Meta has so far declined to comment on the case. Stephanie
Hare, author of Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics, said the effort to provide greater transparency was commendable - but most users would simply click through and move on. "So who is this really for - users or another audience eg regulators?" she asked. "This is Meta moving to technology realpolitik. "Their bet is that most users have
accepted this bargain - they have priced in a privacy trade-off for social connection, convenience, fun and business - so this announcement functions to neutralise criticism about surveillance capitalism." And the approach shifted accountability "on to users and the regulators - 'Users, it is your choice to participate in this transaction. And regulators, the ball is in your court to enforce the laws in your jurisdiction.'" Facebook knows more about you than your own mother does. Are you comfortable with that? If not, you need to take 5 minutes to change these important Facebook privacy settings to make sure the social media giant isn’t able to track everything you do in 2022. If you’re like most people, you’re aware that internet privacy is important. And although you know it’s not as bad as a mobile spy app, you also know that major tech companies like Facebook and Google track a lot of our online activity. But that’s just the price you pay for using their free services, right? Wrong!! It’s true that Facebook tracks you in many different ways, but you do have at least a little bit of control. Making use of the Facebook privacy settings is an important part of that process. Here’s a simple step-by-step guide to help you see why this important and what changes you can start making TODAY. Start: Check Your Public ProfileBefore we dive into the specific Facebook privacy settings, one of the best things you can do for yourself is to understand what your profile looks like to the public. In other words, if a total stranger were to search for your name and come across your Facebook profile… …what would they find? To do this, you’ll want to navigate to your profile page by clicking on your name on the upper-right corner. On the menu bar below your profile picture, you’ll find a button that simply has an eye on it.  This will bring you to what is known as the “View As Public” profile. What you see here is what the public can see without being your friend. More than likely, this will include:
Take careful note of how much personal information is available to EVERY SINGLE PERSON who knows how to do a simple search online. It can be shocking and scary to see what kind of personal information is made public on Facebook! But don’t worry, by the time we’re finished here, you’ll not only have control of this public information, you’ll also let Facebook know how you want them to treat all the tracking information they have on you behind the scenes. If you’d like, you can watch this video to see me change all of these settings step-by-step, or you can just scroll through the rest of this article. Be sure to subscribe to the All Things Secured YouTube channel! The seven Facebook privacy settings I recommend you change are:
Let’s start with number one and make our way through all seven. The screenshots you see here represent Facebook’s 2022 branding update. 1. Limit Past Post Permissions on FacebookThe reason that so many of your past photos and posts are viewable by anyone is because many of us had our permissions set to “public” when we created them. Now you could go through and individually change the permissions of each photo or post… …but that could take a long time. Instead, you could just go into Settings –> Privacy and click on “Limit Past Posts”. IMPORTANT: Remember that once you make this change, you can’t undo it. In other words, if you limit past posts, you would need to go through each individual photo and post and change it back to “public” permissions if you wanted to change it. My recommendation, however, is to keep what you upload to Facebook private between you and your connections.
2. Change Future Post PermissionsOnce you’ve fixed the permissions on all your past Facebook uploads, it’s now time to turn your attention to two more things:
To do this, go to Settings & Privacy –> Privacy Checkup –> “Who Can See What you Share”. Here you’ll have the ability to change who has the right to view your public information (phone, email, birthday, etc.) and the default permission settings. My recommendation is to keep most of either as “Friends” or “Only Me” depending on the level of privacy you wish to create on Facebook. 3. Change Facebook Profile SearchabilityThere are plenty of times that we want to be searchable online. For example, you definitely want your LinkedIn profile to be found by people who might want to hire you. But your Facebook profile? Unless they’re a friend of a friend, it’s not often that a complete stranger has a good reason to search and find you. To change your searchability, you’ll go to Settings & Privacy –> Privacy Checkup –> How People Can Find You on Facebook. Here you have control over:
This last one is a big one for me. I choose to turn this feature off, as you see in the screenshot below: This feature is entirely up to you, but you have to ask yourself: what is to be gained by allowing somebody who is not my friend on Facebook to find me on Google? 4. Turn Off Facebook Facial RecognitionDid you know that Facebook has the ability to use artificial intelligence to identify your face in a photo or video that is uploaded to their platform? If that doesn’t scream “BIG BROTHER!”…I don’t know what will. I prefer to let my friends and family tag me in a photo if they so choose. I don’t like Facebook doing it automatically. To turn this feature off, navigate to Settings & Privacy –> Settings –> Facial Recognition. Unless you’re a public figure and you want to be notified anytime your likeness is uploaded to Facebook, there’s really no reason to have this turned on. 5. Control Off-Facebook ActivityIn January of 2020, Facebook introduced a new tool that allows us as users to see what kind of information Facebook was getting about us from places other than the Facebook platform. In short, this is information that other companies collect, such as our purchase or browsing history, that they give to Facebook in order to allow them to target their advertising better. To check which companies are doing this, go to Settings & Privacy –> Settings –> Your Facebook Information –> Off-Facebook Activity. In the example above, I’ve already cleared my history (it says “You have no available activity to show at this time”), but chances are you’ll see a lot of information listed here. I recommend you do two things here:
The clear history button is pretty clear, but the future activity settings is a bit harder. You’ll have to click on “Manage Your Off-Facebook Activity”, then “Manage Future Activity”, then click on the “Manage Future Activity” button, then click the tiny little button to turn it off. Even then, Facebook will show you a warning saying “Are you sure you want to do this?!?” Obviously, they’d rather have this information available to track you… …but for the sake of your privacy, you need to turn it off! The reason why Facebook is such a valuable company is because of all the information they have on you that they can use for advertisements. For example, a company can give Facebook money and say “We want our advertisement to only be shown to married people, under the age of 30, who live in Texas and who vote Democrat”. And Facebook can do it. While we can’t control all the information Facebook has on us, we can tell them how much of it they can use to advertise to us. Here’s how. Go to Settings & Privacy –> Privacy Checkup –> Your Ad Preferences on Facebook. In the example above, I have told Facebook that I do not want advertisers to use my relationship status, employer, job title, education or other information to advertise to me. Warning: If you prefer to have personalized ads, you’ll want to keep these settings active.
7. Turn Off Facebook Mobile Location HistoryIf you use the Facebook mobile app (and most people do, unfortunately), you may not realize just how much location data Facebook has on you. This information is used to help you understand what is “around you” as well as to serve you more relevant ads. But honestly, it’s a bit creepy knowing that Facebook can track you down to the exact longitude and latitude on the globe. To turn this off, go to Settings & Privacy –> Settings –> Location. While we’re at it, can I just give you another unsolicited piece of advice? Delete the Facebook app. I know, I know…that’s not an easy thing to do. But you’re giving too much personal information to Facebook and it’s also a time suck on your phone. If you absolutely must check Facebook, you can still do so using your favorite mobile web browser. Facebook Privacy Settings | It’s Serious Business!These may seem like trivial changes, but trust me when I say that taking control of your Facebook privacy settings is critical to the health of your online identity. You don’t have to be a professional hacker to do basic research online for the purpose of stealing somebody’s identity (which is also one reason why it’s still worth getting identity theft protection). And sadly, most of us don’t care enough to hide much of that identifying information. This is serious. I hope that you’ve taken a few minutes to make these changes to your Facebook privacy settings. This is one of a few major steps you should be taking to secure your online identity. Did Facebook change their privacy settings?“We've redesigned our entire settings menu on mobile devices from top to bottom to make things easier to find. Instead of having settings spread across nearly 20 different screens, they're now accessible from a single place,” writes Facebook in a blog post announcing the changes.
Why has Facebook changed its settings?Facebook is changing its Settings page on the mobile app. The new layout will help people easily find tools they often need quicker. These include managing the ads people see, adjusting sharing settings and curating an audience for posts.
How do I change my privacy settings on Facebook 2022?Tap in the top right of Facebook. Scroll down and tap Settings. Scroll down to Audience and visibility section and tap the option you want to change the privacy for.
Why is Facebook constantly making changes to its privacy settings?Facebook is updating its privacy settings to make it easier for you to control what you share — with the social network and connected apps — and tools to delete the data it has collected on you.
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