Facebook.... again.
 

Time to revisit your privacy settings and profile pages, kids. Now FB wants to make your phone number available to apps. I was surprised to find that I even still had my number in there, this was a great reminder to clear that info out.

1) Your phone number and address would not be shared by default, it would be an option every time you add an individual app (though admittedly there is the issue that too many people would just blindly click "yes, go ahead" when the dialog pops up)

2) They've actually said they're putting a hold on implementing it.

Yeah, but I still like to spread the word as a reminder to folks to check that they're not sharing more than they wish to

Personally, I don't care if people have my phone number. In fact, here it is: (202) 456-1414

Have you staged a coup?

And yet, you never come by for dinner. You bastard.

I just never saw any reason for me to put phone and address info in my Facebook profile. I don't see any reason for even the best of my friends to have that information without having had to ask me first.

Can I have your phone and address Alex?

Nor have any privacy settings changed since the switch to the "new profile". Whatever it was is whatever it still is.

And people question why I am not on Facebook

Sure, my phone is a piece of crap (sadly, the initial bloom is way off the rose). And I'd be happy to sublet but you might be surprised how much you have to pay for a 1 bedroom in the deep burbs.

They have a book with everyone's faces in it?

Yes, I was thumbing through it one day while at the Police Station, and there was this one face that looked familiar. It was just a big eye.....

And now with caller ID, crank calling has lost it's luster. Dang!

So, you asked me to friend you today on FB because you wanted to post your phone number as the number of the White House?

Yeah, it was looking like this Facebook thing might be catching on so I thought I would give it a try.

Great, now everybody can get my mom's address and phone number.

Like they don't already have it.

Nice to see Kevin's on top of the latest technology.

I was embracing my inner luddite.

Even Tori was shocked by Kevy's presence in FB land.. FR sent, KB!

OK. TY. TTYL. C YA.

OOps - conversation this morning.

Madz - Is (Kevy's real name) Kevy?

Me - yes why

Madz - he's on facebook

Me - must be another Kevy, Kevy isn't on facebook

Madz - ok I'll unfriend him

Maybe I'm just and idiot but why does anyone care if someone has your phone number or your address? A simple internet search will show most of this information without facebook.

My cell number is on my facebook. Friends have used facebook to find my cell number and call me. I don't worry about it.

So now I am the only hold out left, thanks Kevy! I can't even figure out how to change my pic on LoT,which the kid informed me must be done because and I quote " I don't look like that anymore, that's the little kid me!!". Sadly that pic was less than two years ago.

I'll never make it on FB, I'm too technologically challenged!

not quite

KatieSue: Identity theft and telemarketing, mostly.

Yes, except as she pointed out, your phone number and address are readily available to identity thieves and telemarketers without facebook's help. That information is everywhere. Good luck trying to purge that info from the internets.

Yes, but there's a difference between "It's available if someone bothers to take the time to look for and collect it" vs. "It's handed to them on a silver platter in one convenient place that groups it all together, identifies your social circle, and a list of your interests." One can accept that it's not possible to protect one's information from enterprising spammers that will mine the data while still not wanting to be complicit in making it easier and easier for them to do that mining.

The funny thing is that she even suggested you as a friend to me (there were a few people I missed on the first pass of adding friends).

Hopefully she un-unfriends me.

OK, I guess I just never saw a valid reason to put my phone number or address on Facebook. In fact it always seemed like a really bad idea.

Maybe that's why I couldn't find my name (any name, former or current) on this info website that everyone is crying about regarding stolen ID info from FB.

I can't find my name attached to any remotely correct info on any website that claims to have information. In fact, several of the new websites everyone is crying about is compiling information by making people register for it. It then uses that information and the searches they do [name + city] to further data mine information from other sources and obtain accurate records.

The few websites I have found my name on (able to access without registering) have my address in one city, the city as another and the zip code as a third.

Lame-O

If you put something on the internet, expect it to be shared.

In the olden days, there was the white pages.

W-wh-white pages?

What are these pages of white that you speak of?

It harkens back to the days of segregation - it was a dark period in our nation's history.

Time to once again revisit your privacy settings kids. Now FB is going to scan photos from all 500 million users and automatically tag you in any photos.

Yeah, I find that particular bit of technology quite creepy

I think it's rather cool if a bit oversold. Right now it helps me tag photos I download, and I like that. But using similar tools in Picassa I'm going to have to presume there's a substantial error rate that will require manual intervention. Still it would be cool to see how many random people's Disneyland photos I can be found in.

If I'm reading it right, and there is certainly no guarantee on that, it will only tag you in the photos uploaded by your friends.

I wonder how many pics my lil bro and I will get cross tagged.

(huh...just realized Im a 4x loser now....wonder when that happened)

It actually won't even automatically tag them, it will just suggest that your friend tag them. article here

As long as it continues telling me any time I'm tagged in a photo (regardless of whether it is automatic or manually done by a person) I don't really care.

I'm kinda thinking if by now you still get bent out of shape over the next alleged Facebook privacy violation, you probably shouldn't be on Facebook

And, as mentioned, if the accuracy is on par with Picasa's, the false matches are going to outweigh things pretty quickly. Over the years I have so many photos of Lani in so many conditions that by the time I tagged her in all of them it was suggesting random patterns in background scenery were her.

Isn't the whole point of facebook to share things with your friends? Why upload photos if you don't want people to see them?

To share them with friends. I untag certain photos and from places tags all the time.

They also want to start tagging brands. Um, sure. whatever.

I both get tagged and tag other when uploading pics of things like cats, raccoons, falcon, pugs, etc. This could be fun!

It was this post

hmm...I was hoping for something a bit more epic. could be worse though

Speaking of epic, looks like Facebook is planning an IPO, though not until next year.

I wish they'd stop sending me email notifications I"m not supposed to be receiving

Did you go through all of your settings and make sure they are all unchecked? Every time they add a new feature notification settings get changed.

I did!

According to a couple of messages I saw this morning from a couple of LoTers, my Facebook account was apparently hacked. I looked and did not see anything out of the ordinary, so perhaps it has been fixed now. Should I be worried? Do I need to do anything at this point?

You probably weren't hacked. You probably clicked a spammy link. It just auto-posts bullsh*t to your wall. You may want to go through the pages you "like" and see if there's anything in there you don't want.

Click "Profile" -> "Edit Profile" -> "Activities and Interests" -> "Show Other Pages"

It looks like a lot of people got hit with the spammly links last night, or they are new and improved because my friend, who never clicks on anything or does anything with his FB started posting them.

Yes, worry is ok to. But solution to problem with winky is easy to had!

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it was a spammy style one, not a hack. I got hit as well, but reported and deleted the entries within a few minutes so (I think) I managed to avoid anyone clicking further.

I wonder if my mom got hacked.

Where's that yawning smiley?

Sheesh - that is really buried, isn't it?!? Thanks for the pointer.

I still haven't received whatever floaty right side thing I will apparently eventually get.

But so far I don't really get the outrage at the other change I have received. But then maybe it is because i remember how outraged people were when Facebook changed to the current form that they are now outraged Facebook is changing.

To hear Mashable talk about it, today we are going to experience either Armageddon or the return of Jesus Christ the savior. I'll make the popcorn....

I rather like the one feed. But what I think it portends is that facebook will arbitrarily determine to feed me less and less.

It's bad enough I just learned you have to set each friend individually to receive all of their updates, as opposed to the default "most" of their updates, which facebook randomly picks for you. They they switched the default just recently to summary notifications instead of individual notifications. I understand how they would want to default to less work - - but I don't know how to tell facebook I want to receive ALL of my friends' updates in my new combined feed.


That live chatter box thing was so annoying, but Chrome has an easy fix to get rid of it, and good riddance. But I suspect my new combined feed is a lazy feed of roughly 50% of my friends' updates, which facebook is randomly selecting. Fvck that!

I expect FB will become pretty useless for me as I don't get information feeds that I usually read to keep me updated. Oh well. Not much time for it anyways.

Well, switching it from most to all seems to result in I see everything they do (such as commenting on a status update for someone i don't know). Did it do that before and now I'm just hyperaware?

Because if that is different then I think I prefer worrying that I am missing stuff because FB has decided I wouldn't care over seeing the 70% of peoples activities that I actually don't care about.

I'm seeing posts by apps I blocked long ago. Some of them are re-blockable, some don't seem to be.

Actually, my ex gf was always seeing comments I made to other people's status updates - people she was NOT friends of. I was always confused by that - but maybe it's because she unwittingly had "my" friend setting set to "all," despite the default being "most."

I haven't yet switched everyone to "all" from "most" - and I'm doing that on a case-by-case basis as I think of it. But I've yet to see any comments by friends on "strangers" status updates.

I suppose that's the whole point of that "chatter box" thing which I deleted yesterday as an annoyance.


On the other hand, I like the Timeline concept for the new profiles. But who goes to anyone's profile anyway?

I've toggled peoples' status from most to all and it doesn't seem to make any difference in what I am seeing for people. And definitely seeing comments made by friends on posts by people I've never even heard of, let alone have any association with myself.

As of this morning I still hadn't seen the ticker myself though (and now I likely won't until sometime in late October) so I have no opinion on that.

So, Timeline... I was expecting something more spectacular. I haven't "published" mine yet, but lack the narcissism to go back and relive my life on Facebook. I think if I do anything, it will be to create a fictional past or pasts. Is there something I'm missing?

MySpace. Now without music.

Please no glitter backgrounds.

I saw an app that just goes and deletes all your posts and comments that are more than X period old. Kind of intrigued by the idea since never once have I had any urge to look up something I said on Facebook more than a few days previously.

I just delete old posts on a weekly basis. Not that I think they are actually deleted from the servers, just the UI.

Yes, I assume Facebook will have it forever. But so long as it isn't available for random discovery by everybody in the world, I don't much care.

Well, eventually it will be. Either through hacking, or when FB goes under, or is taken over by more unscrupulous types. Facebook may not be, but the internet is forever.

Hahaha.... "more unscrupulous"...

OK WTF - why is all the crap that's usually in the sidebar (it's still there) now showing up in my feed? Which by the way why do I have to change my feed to recent posts every flipin time I go on facebook?

My feed is clogged with every like or comment any of my friends make on anyone else s wall. The only way I see to get rid of it is by each post I can "unsubscribe to ___'s likes and comments" - is there a way to blanket do this? Flipin Zukerberg

I am coming to believe that since fb's goal is to make you spend more time on fb these changes and their complicated resolutions are one of the ways to keep your eyeballs and ad revenue on the site.

I agree with that.

Wait; are you saying Facebook is about making money?!?

I wear a large. Maybe medium by my birthday.

We have a family friend, Godmother to Headliner, that for lack of a better term is being a douche on her facebook page. Headline is hesitant to get out the ban hammer and smack her with it, so I'm wondering.... Can Headliner put this individual in a box so that none of her other facebook friends can see any posts she makes on her wall?

Yes; just make sure to leave a breathing hole for fresh air and provide enough food and water to sustain her. A well-built wooden box should be sufficient, but you may want to consider metal if said Godmother is particularly feisty.

Headliner can prevent this person from posting on her wall but can't make the posts from that person private to all but her.

Isn't there an option to hide all posts from a person?

Yes. It sounds like Headliner wants to block everyone else from seeing douchebaggery someone is posting on her wall though. There's no way to block her friends from seeing that unless she prevents the person from posting on her wall to begin with.

Facebook drama sucks. I try very hard not to post anything controversial anymore after my brother in law defriended me and barely speaks to me at family functions anymore.

He doesn't talk to me at all!

See. This is what I'm talking about.

Since she's headliners godmother, can't a grown up have a little chat with her and ask her not to?

I'm actually loving facebook because it's easy to see who the kiddos friends are. Man I would have been super duper hosed if my parents had facebook, or actually knew what the police codes meant when my name came over the scanner.

:eek:

Check your email listing in Facebook.

Also, EdgeRank is controlling a lot of what you see on your Wall, so if you have any non-people entities you want to see updates from, you should create "Interest" lists.

EdgeRank?

I don't know if this is old news, but facebook has changed everyone's email address to an @facebook address on their timeline. To change it back to an email address of your choice, you have to edit that area of your profile (under "About") to change the facebook address to Hidden From Timeline, and your preferred address to Shown On Timeline.


Sheesh.

Comments I have seen on this seem to imply that your default email for notifications and such has not changed and that by "fixing" this issue all you are really doing is publicly exposing your email address to anyone that views your FB timeline.

Yeah, I don't see the big deal on this since it effectively restricts the people I only know on fb to contact me through fb. LoT does the same thing.

You can select who sees it (e.g., by default it's "Friends only"). I have no problem with my friends seeing my actual email address as my contact address rather than some facebook-assigned address I never asked for.

Exactly. My email address listed on facebook was always restricted to Friends Only - and I want those friends to be able to contact me at my actual email address. Can Zuckerberg just die already?

Hey GD, your signature image isn't exactly SFW

That's a swimsuit. Geeze, even I know that. ;)

A good example of why I use the "Alex" style at work...

As others have said above, the main difference to me was that it showed a contact email address outside of "friends only." I don't want to get any more spam than I already receive.

Apparently all the "ignore comments and likes by...." has been removed. I don't want to see everything my friends comment and like. Have to redo it and I don't think its sticking.

Anyone else seeing this again?

I did find out of you're subscribed (I don't know how I did that because I didn't want to) to a persons posts and they unfriend you - you still see their posts in your feed.

Hummm...

So Mrs. Moonie decided to get a Facebook account. So we set one up using a slightly different spelling of her name (she's worried about business people seeing it).

That was about a week ago.

Today I get a phising email with that name attached, addressed to me by name at my home email. Is there still some some default that leaves your signup email address visible?

WTF Facebook?

Um, wow.

Speaking of creepy....

Farcebook is now scanning your messages and "liking" things for you.

I have a question if anyone knows. Remember when they changed everything and you had to manually go in and say if you wanted to see everything someone posted or just some of what they posted? Well that option is gone now, or I can't find it, and there are some people that half their stuff doesn't show up on my feed. If I go to their wall it's there. Anyone know how to fix?

Hover over one of their posts, there will be a down arrow in the top right of the post. Click on that and select "Hide". Then, where the post was, will be some links, including "Change what updates you get from [annoying person]".

Thanks - oye. Isn't it implied that you actually want to see what your friends posts hence the reason you friended them. Not just what random posts some algorithm thinks you might want to see.

Some friends post too much. I've throttled feeds from people that mostly post political/religious rants, lot's of links to youTube, tortured animal pics, etc. I still like them, but the less of this kind of stuff I see the more likely I'll continue to like them.

Oh I have blocked people from my feed for those kinds of things - but don't you want to see it all first then decide to block rather than have some random things blocked and you have to manually add each person.

On the off chance you need yet another reason to be wary of Facebook...

What put me off of it was that I think FB lied to me about who was already using the auto-photo uploader in an attempt to get me on board. It said "these people share photos on fb", included my husband in the list, then gave the link to approve the uploader. GD does share photos manually but doesn't use the new thing. It's total bait and switch.

I thought everything on the Internet was true?

OMG! Kevy's Head is made of Chowder !!

Well now, it looks like the last "scary photo" news from FarceBook was just the opening salvo.

Take a gander as this.

As an update, people with better understanding of legalese than I possess have read the changes somewhat differently.

The good news: As written, the new language does NOT give them the right to sell your photos willy nilly and is actually slightly MORE restrictive in terms of what your photos can be usded for than before.

The bad news: The old language was actually ALREADY pretty permissive, allowing advertise a fair bit of leeway in using your photos (the way FB already allows, where advertisers can plop your photo into ads on the site).

The remains-to-be-seen news: Instagram has released a statement saying they are taking the reaction into consideration and working to clarify the language.

Or, to put it another way:

Instagram

"I'm gonna call the cops and get Chad arrested for theft, then move all my stuff to the house across the street. Hopefully the owners there are more responsible."