
Facebook Privacy:
Hiding from Google
By John Sileo
www.Sileo.com
The New York Times recently
published an article that discusses the severe changes Facebook has
made to privacy settings.
What Can Google See? (Keep Your Data
Off the Search Engines)
When you visit Facebook’s Search Settings page, a warning message pops
up. Apparently, Facebook wants to clear the air about what info is
being indexed by Google. The message reads:
There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all
your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public
search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and
see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic
set of information.
While that may be true to a point, the second setting listed on this
Search Settings page refers to exactly what you’re allowing Google to
index. If the box next to "Allow" is checked, you’re giving search
engines the ability to access and index any information you’ve marked
as visible by "Everyone." As you can see from the settings discussed
above, if you had not made some changes to certain fields, you would be
sharing quite a bit with the search engines…probably more information
than you were comfortable with. To keep your data private and out of
the search engines, do the following:
1.From
your Profile page, hover your mouse over the Settings menu at the top
right and click "Privacy Settings" from the list that appears.
2.Click "Search" from the list of
choices on the next page.
3.Click "Close" on the pop-up
message that appears.
4.On this page, uncheck the box
labeled "Allow" next to the second setting "Public Search Results."
That keeps all your publicly shared information (items set to viewable
by "Everyone") out of the search engines. If you want to see what the
end result looks like, click the "see preview" link in blue underneath
this setting.
Be proactive about what you share on Facebook and protect your online
privacy!
About the author: John Sileo
became America's leading Identity Theft Speaker &
Expert after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to
identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of
Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To further bulletproof yourself and your
business, visit John's blog at Sileo.com. To book John at your next event,
visit www.ThinkLikeaSpy.com.
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