#timeline concerns

Facebook’s Timeline has been available for over a year.  Even after all this time, Timeline is causing quite a stir regarding the lack of privacy it creates.  Some users love it, some hate it, but the bottom line is that it’s here and it’s going to stay.  If you are a private person and don’t want all of your comings and goings broadcast for the virtual world to see, you need to know how to protect yourself by using your privacy controls.     

The “Maps” feature of Timeline is what is raising most of the privacy concerns.  Your Facebook wall is the map of your “life”.  Timeline uses all of the information about yourself (including pictures) that you have posted to Facebook over the years, in order to create this map.  Each event and picture lists the date associated with it.  There are features that you can opt out of, but Maps isn’t one of them.   

If you take the time to read Facebook’s Privacy Policy, you will see that it states, “We receive data from the computer, mobile phone or other device you use to access Facebook.  This may include your IP address, location, the type of browser you use, or the pages you visit.”  Everyone who wants to be a Facebook user must agree to the Terms of Service, including the Privacy Policy, so when you agree, you are saying “yes” to everything stated in those policies.   Also, by saying “yes”, you are acknowledging that you understand everything in the policies.  You are also accepting that Facebook will be using your posts and making them public.

Every picture taken and uploaded to Facebook, by either you or a friend, from a cell phone that has the GPS feature turned on, will be tagged to you.  This means that everyone will be able to see where you are and what you are doing at any given moment in time.  You may think that you are safe from this if you don’t upload any pictures, but think again.  Even if a friend, or a friend of a friend, posts pictures of you, these will show on your map.  If there are no recent pictures of you, your map will still include past posts, updates and pictures.

Your music preferences will also be made public if you are using Spotify.  In the earlier versions of Spotify, users had no choice but to link their playlists to Facebook.  Now, however, users could opt for “Private Listening” because of the many requests for it.  One thing to remember is that if Spotify needs to restart, or if it’s not used that often, the user must choose “Private Listening” again because it will reset itself to the “public” default.

Another privacy concern comes from all those event invitations that you RSVP to over Facebook.   Every time you click on “Will Attend”, the people on your Friends list will be targeted for the same event.  They will be enticed into “attending” by being told that YOU will be attending.  The same is true for the “Like” button.  Every time you click on “Like”, your friends, too, will be asked to “Like” whatever it was that you liked. 

If you read articles from links that your friends post, you can expect them to be posted too.  The first time you open a new app to read something, you are asked for permission to allow the app to access your information.  Many of us just do this without much thought, however, by doing so, whatever you read from that time on will be posted on your Facebook wall.  You only have to “Allow” once for this to happen.

Another thing to consider is your “Relationship Status”.  Once you put change your status to “In a relationship with….” that status will not go away if that relationship ends.  It’s a part of your history and won’t be erased even if you are now “In a relationship” with someone else.  Many people, mostly teens, will meet someone and after the first date rush to change their relationship status.  A week or a month later, when there is a new love interest, the status is changed again to include the new boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s name.  Don’t be so quick to change your relationship status.  There’s no need for the world to see who you’re dating.  After all, your friends know who your boyfriend or girlfriend is, so there’s really no need to announce that person’s name.  You shouldn’t allow yourself to be pressured into adding a name to a relationship status.  If you must, simply check off “In a relationship” but leave out a name.  Think about how you will feel if you entered “In a relationship with Carl Smithers” in September 2012, but Carl cheated on you in February 2013.  You ended this relationship, yet every day when you look at your Timeline, you are reminded of Carl.