Facebook's Social Web: How to Protect Your Privacy

Facebook's Social Web: How to Protect Your Privacy - PCWorld

Protecting your privacy on Facebook can feel like a full-time job. The social network has made a habit of tweaking its privacy policies with some regularity -- and in many cases, it's up to you to take proactive steps in order to keep your info out of the public eye.

This week's introduction of Facebook's "Open Graph" is no exception. By default, you're now opted in to the company's new social sharing services, and this time, they stretch way beyond the confines of Facebook.com.

If you're comfortable with that, more power to you. But if you'd rather keep your personal preferences private, here's a step-by-step guide to taking back control.

I consider myself fairly well-versed when it comes to online social networking, but even I have become confused with Facebook's changes over the past few months. Some options moved, some changed, some disappeared all together (or so it seems.) This is a great guide, but I find it ridiculous that it even needed to be written in the first place. I have a feeling my days on Facebook are numbered.

Edit to add: Here is a tool you can run to see what of your information is viewable publicly through the Facebook Graph API.