What makes a perfect Facebook profile? One that reveals the absolute minimum about you. Why? Because Facebook is desperately trying to increase its hold on your life and will use parts of your profile in ways that you never imagined. Check out this ‘facepile’:
This looks innocent enough, doesn’t it? Ten nameless faces. But wait! Hover your mouse over any of them:
You might say, “So? What’s the big deal here?” Well, so far we have a face and a name. Let’s see what else we can get from this Facebook facepile.
What can we find out about this person simply by clicking on her profile? Nothing more than her city, her high school, her original home town, her age, if she’s in a relationship, who her friends are, all of her photo albums…well, you get the point.
This is why we are concerned about your privacy. If you’re not worried, move on to something else. If you are, stick around. By the end of this week you’ll know how to lock up your profile completely, showing the world the absolute minimum that Facebook will let you. Why can’t you hide everything? Simply because Facebook is a social medium, that’s the point of it. Once you agree to Facebook’s terms of use, there are some things you can’t hide. We’ll show you how to minimize the threat of overexposure, even hiding those things that Facebook says you can’t hide.
That’s enough for today but here’s a link to our post on how to hide your Facebook profile photo thumbnail: Facebook Profile Photo Trick. In future posts this week we’ll show you how to:
1. Hide your friend list, everyone except your mutual friends (can’t hide them).
2. Hide your personal information, the stuff you see under the About button on your Timeline.
3. Your activity, at least as much as Facebook allows you to hide.
and more! This site is a wealth of information about Facebook and many other topics. Stop by our Facebook page and click ‘Like’. That way, you’ll always be up to date on the how-tos and security updates that we post. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook.
Thanks for reading! Questions and comments are always welcome, remember that.