Facebook recently unleashed a geo-tagging feature called Facebook Places. Very similar to the social networking application Foursquare, users can use their smartphones to get a precise location of where they currently are, and then “check-in” to nearby restaurants, stores, and places that they are visiting.
Many think that posting current locations on Facebook, Twitter, and the likes is just asking for someone to rob your house or car (see here). As Facebook users tend to keep a much greater amount of “friends” than they might on other social networks, such as Foursquare or LinkedIn, the use of Places might be putting you at an even greater risk than similar applications on separate accounts. The introduction of Places is not so much new, unfamiliar technology as it is a much larger platform to announce what should be private information.
Additionally, the default privacy settings on Facebook leave you open to attack. Default settings allow for your Facebook friends to tag you at a location without your permission. It also allows all users, whether friends or not, to see your location under a “People here now” feature.
How to Control Your Facebook Places Privacy Settings:
At our company, we work with our clients to maximize their exposure for business purposes. While most of our clients are not active Facebook users, they still have a professional presence there. This has become critical as Facebook grows both in users and in importance in the search rankings, especially Google.
Here are our current recommendations and step-by-step instructions that we use to meet our client’s objectives for a Facebook presence while minimizing some of the perceived risks to your privacy and security. Included are screenshots of the Ezults recommended settings.
Under your Account, go to Privacy Settings- an area of the Facebook site that all users should be familiar with.
You will be taken to an overview of your current settings. In a “Places I check in to” overview, Facebook informs you that unless you customize settings, your check-ins will be visible to both your friends and strangers nearby you.
Going to the “Customize settings” page first shows you “Things (you) share.” Here, you should make sure that the people that can view places you check in to is as you want it to be, as well as whether or not you want to appear to strangers that are nearby your location.
Second, you will find a “Things others share” section. This is where you can control whether or not your friends can check you into locations.
