Social Sunday: A closer look at my Facebook settings

Courtesy flickr: bala_

So, the other day I promised you that I’d go over the settings I’m using within Facebook to manage my privacy. before we get to them, though, a few quick notes:

1. My settings are not for everyone and this isn’t a “Best” or “most secure” type of guide. I use Facebook in two capacities at the same time (Business and pleasure) and that makes it rather tricky.
2. I make extensive use of friend lists – something not everyone is comfortable with. People fall into only a single group (Well, for the purposes of privacy settings) and that often puts me into a tough spot when trying to decide where someone falls.
3. My setting are never ‘finished’. I’ve spent hours refining where they are now, but there’s always one more thing to change here and there.

So – that all said, let’s take a look. It all starts with friend lists.

Listed

So – in order to make my privacy options work, everyone is sorted into a friends list. My lists fall into 4 over-arching groups: “Inner circle”, business, pleasure and limited – and I colour code them whenever I can (Facebook won’t let me – but my personal spreadsheets all have colours. Within each groups, there are varying levels of access and what types of information are released. I’m going to cover them in descending order here:

• Inner Circle – Me: This one is pretty obvious. There are some options where Facebook has (In the past, at least) said that your choice are “Only Me” or “Everyone”. This groups doesn’t exist in facebook, but is in my spreadsheets to help me keep track of those settings.
• Inner Circle – All Access: When it come to access groups – this is the big dog. Folks in this group see absolutely everything I can share with them. All of it. I’ll admit, too – there are two people in this group: one is my wife, one was the best man at my wedding (And a friend for more than a decade). This group doubles over in the “personal” side , too – so if you’re hoping to land a seat here, you’ve got some mighty big shoes to fill.
• Personal – Family: Like the ‘Me’ group – this one doesn’t need much of a description. My family members use Facebook to keep up with one-another, so this group helps me reveal info to them (Like my address) that I wouldn’t reveal to some other people. Plus, it’s nice for birthday reminders.
• Personal – Friends: For the most part, the Personal Friends group and the Family group share settings – which means that this group’s awfully exclusive: just 17 people. I keep the groups separate mostly for photo sharing and application data – family can see the family tree stuff and this group can’t. There are a number of people who I met online who have worked their way into this exclusive little group – so that’s not beyond the realm of possibility…
• Personal – Acquaintances: If our paths have crossed in my non-work world (Or they crossed on the web but have gone offline since), you’re in this group. This is the high school friends, folks from college, friend of a friend at a party, co-worker, former co-worker, used to camp/bowl/whatever together group.
• Business – Trusted Web Friends: As we work our way ‘down’ the line, we hit this group. This group runs closer to the ‘Personal’ side of the fence than the ‘Business’ side. It’s really part of an ‘upgrade path’ between “Web Friends” and “Personal Friends” – and you only really get “stuck” here if you live to gosh-darned far away.
• Business – Web Friends: The biggest of the groups and the one you’re likely in if the others don’t seem to fit. This group is for the twitter folk, linkedin buddies, folks I met on message boards at Podcamps and so on.
• Limited – Limited Profile: Not a place you want to be. Home to 4 people so far. :(
• Limited – Super Limited: A place you want to be even less. It’s home to one.

The Settings

So, now that you know how the lists break down, it only makes sense to reveal the new settings.  Remember, that none of these are EVER final. I’ve broken them up into the two “pages” that Facebook has:

Profile Info

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Profile Info

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So That’s That

Like I mentioned – this is never set in stone. I’m always refining just how I use Facebook and how it fits into my daily routine, so I’m alway re-tweaking who can see what.

But what about you? How did this latest round of changes affect you? Did you make any changes to how you use Facebook as a result?