Your Facebook privacy settings need checking

Facebook started rolling out its new look and graph search this week. Not everyone has the new layout (notifications will now be on the right rather than the left) but most people should have it by next week. 

It is all part of the long announced graph search. 

The good news is if you wanted to search for ‘Friends who went to My University’ it compiles a neat list for you.

The bad news, is you may end up being more public on Facebook than you wanted to be.

If you have privacy concerns go to the padlock at the top right of the page and click on it (it’s located between your name and the gear).

Click on ‘Who can see my stuff?’. It will give you a drop down menu of three choices: 1) Who can see my future posts?; 2) Where do I review who can see or find things I’ve posted or been tagged in?; and 3) What do other people see on my timeline?

The first thing to check is your posts’ setting. The dropdown menu will give you a several choices. If you have it on ‘public’ that means anyone and everyone on Facebook can see what you post. So unless you really want your boss or future employer to see what you look like after you’ve played six games of beer pong or you in a bikini, tighten it up.

The next lowest setting from public is friends, but you can choose to make it just ‘close friends’ or ‘friends except acquaintances’ or even customize it to specify which of your friends can see what your weekend plans are.

The new graph tour is available on the ‘Where do I review who can see or find things I’ve posted or been tagged in?’. The tour takes two minutes.

Finally, you can see how someone else can view your timeline. Type in a person’s name and your page comes up as it is visible to them. 

 I was surprised at how visible some of my posts were. I thought they were private, but obviously not. 

If you don’t care who sees what you post or are tagged in, forget about it, but if your privacy matters, take the time to adjust your settings after you get the new Facebook layout.