Facebook and privacy?

Setting our own trap- It is nice to share our victories and defeats to friends and family- even stranglers. Every time you answer a question a about your name, location, age, gender and even location. These types of questions help anyone interested in pin pointing who you are, what you do and where you live & work. This is excellent food for the feeding frenzy occurring by id theft sharks.

By adding in your Internet preferences on content and surfing habits, it assists in targeting you for sellers of all walks of life that pay Facebook big bucks for target marketing campaigns. Renewed pressure from governments, consumer groups, privacy legislators and you, the computer user, has only dented the wide spread abuse of your personal information. Well, you say I would rather see adverting on things I am interested in anyway. That lear jet to fly around the world, 200 foot cabin cruiser or Rolls Royce is just what the doctor ordered to relieve stress.

Then, there is your keen interest in reducing your taxes and interest you pay on your credit cards or better still, inquire and improve your credit rating. Or just maybe, want to know how to slim down while improving your endurance. And, of course, finding a new friend that shares common interests.

In short order, a whole new world of possibilities start to arrive in your email in box. New ads appear on your Facebook page and your postal mail & phone calls takes on a new personality of their own.

So what can you do?
Look to Facebook themselves. Here are their suggestions:

"In response to your feedback, we've improved the Friend List visibility option described below. Now when you uncheck the "Show my friends on my profile" option in the Friends box on your profile, your Friend List won't appear on your profile regardless of whether people are viewing it while logged into Facebook or logged out. This information is still publicly available, however, and can be accessed by applications. Thanks again for your comments and suggestions. We've also posted a third tutorial about the new privacy controls here. This video explains how to use the privacy control in the Publisher, the box where you publish status content such as updates, photos, videos and links.
Thank you for all of your feedback so far on the new privacy tools we began rolling out today. We'll be providing updates and listing the most common questions we're receiving in this post. Be sure to read our full blog post on the new privacy tools, if you haven't already."

Start to ask yourself:

Why don't I have the new settings?

If you haven't yet seen the three-step transition tool for reviewing and updating your privacy settings, you will shortly. We're asking all 350 million people who use Facebook to go through this process and are rolling out the changes incrementally to make sure it goes smoothly. Keep in mind that you also won't see the new Privacy Settings page until you've gone through the transition process.

Can I limit access to my Friend List?

Many of you have mentioned that you want a way to hide your list of friends. In response to your feedback, we've removed the "View Friends" link from search results, making your Friend List less visible on the site.
In addition, you can further limit the visibility of your Friend List to other people on Facebook if you want.
After you've completed the transition to the new privacy settings, you'll be able to click on the pencil icon in the top-right corner of the "Friends" box on your profile. Un checking "Show my friends on my profile" will prevent your Friend List from appearing in your profile. when it is viewed by people who are logged in to Facebook.
Keep in mind, however, that because Friend List is publicly available, it will be visible to people who are viewing your profile while not logged in.
Again, you will only have this option once you've completed the transition to the new privacy settings. Remember, you can also limit who can find you in searches on Facebook and control whether your information can be indexed by public search engines under "Search" on the Privacy Settings page.

Can I limit access to my Wall?

There's been some confusion about whether you can still limit access to Wall posts from friends and applications. The answer is yes. Just as before, you have complete control over who has access to posts your friends have made through the "Posts by Friends" setting under "Profile Information" on the Privacy Settings page.
For example, if you choose Friends of Friends, only your friends and friends of those friends will be able to see posts others have made on your Wall.
You can also control whether applications you use can post stories to your Wall on the Application Settings page. Just click "Edit Settings" next to an application's name and choose the settings that are right for you."

Other options to regain some privacy?

Most importantly, if your friends really do know who you are there is no need to tell them how old you are, where you live or even your real name, your gender,etc. Nicknames are great and a lot less traceable by id thefts. Pick an email address' and passwords, you can check easily that does not reveal your name or location. In other words, your real name does not have to be your real name but something your true friends know.

Should you feel, you are already over your head and still need Facebook to have a life- start a new account. Let your real friends know and leave the old one behind forever. Try to close it down in the setting in your Facebook account. Do not return, since the more you put in there- the more info accumulates over time and advertisers loose interest in non- active users quickly.

Maybe governments will get more say in protecting your privacy in the future but do not hold your breath. After all, they are the largest collectors of personal information world wide:)
Check out Canadian Privacy Commissioner still not happy with FaceBook privacy violations Feb. 17, 2010.