Facebook can be a useful tool for staying in touch with people. It's an essential part of my campaign of relentless self-promotion. However, you should always keep in mind that you are not Facebook's customer. You are its product, your eyeballs on sale to the black magicians of marketing. So to get benefit from Facebook while not being exploited, takes some awareness and cleverness.
El Reg reports that FB is preparing yet another overhaul of its privacy policy:
Facebook strips away a bit more of your privacy – but won't say why • The Register
It includes simplifying the language it uses to explain what information it receives from users whenever they are using or "running" Facebook. It said it was also clarifying that some of that information reveals details about the device itself such as an IP address, operating system or – surprisingly – a mobile phone number.
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Facebook has agreed to explain how it uses a name, profile picture, content and information in connection with ads after it got into hot water over its Sponsored Stories function, which – without prior consent – served adverts to Facebookers featuring the faces and names of people who had "Liked" a particular product.
The Mark Zuckerberg-run outfit now states that it will no longer take responsibility for how those ads are served, because users will have agreed to that usage upon signing up to the network. Existing users will also be expected to simply comply with the new terms, or else ditch Facebook in protest against how their data is being re-purposed:
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Facebook also made it clear that the company can use photo recognition software to correctly identify people on the network.
Here what you can do:
- Mobile phone number: You should never give your mobile phone number to a marketing company -- which includes any social media site. They want it because not only can they spam you via phone calls and text messages, but it's a unique long-term identifier: you may move and change your address, you might change your e-mail from Yahoo to Gmail to who knows what, but thanks to number portability you may take your cell phone number with you for life.
If you've already given it to them, delete it. If that's not possible, replace it with a fake one, like a classic 555 number. (Or if you want to get more pointed, these two numbers have been reported to belong to Facebook: 650-543-4800 and 650-308-7300.)
- Likes: The idea of serving ads with the faces and names of FB "friends" who "like" the product in question is particularly odious. Go to your profile (click on your name at the top of the page), then "Update Info". You can de-like commercial brands, and/or adjust privacy settings. To do the latter, for each category like "Movies" and "TV Shows", click the pencil icon on the right side (it says "Edit" when you hover over it). Click "Edit Privacy". Set the privacy for each category to "Only Me".
- Photo recognition: Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the page. Select "Privacy Settings". Click on "Timeline and Tagging" on the menu on the left. Scroll down to "Who sees tag suggestions when photos that look like you are uploaded?" Click the "Edit" link and set it to "No One".
This is in addition to using the basic precautions of Ghostery and Adblock Plus to secure your browsing against trackers. (Ghostery and Adblock Plus on their default settings will block the worst abuses without getting in your way; you can increase protection with more stringent settings or using more advanced tools but they affect your browsing experience more.)
With a little attention to what you share, you can make yourself a poor product to Facebook and similar sites while still extracting value from them.