If you have logged into Facebook any time in the last 24 hours or so, you’ve been informed about some of the changes to the privacy options the site lets you choose from, and you’ve also been given a chance to change some of those settings or just accept the default options.
This Fast Company blog post explains why you probably shouldn’t just accept the defaults without taking a moment to review what your current privacy settings are and whether or not you want them changed. The short version: Facebook’s new “default” setting not only lets everyone on Facebook see what you’ve posted, it also lets the entire Internet see it as part of Facebook’s gambit of trying to get a piece of the emerging real-time search business. So, your “candid photography” (nudge-nudge-wink-wink), dumb-ass quiz results, and other potentially embarrassing and possibly litigious statements will be there for anyone in the world to see rather than just the 300 million Facebook users who already had access to the undeniable proof of your stupidity.
If you’ve never gone through your privacy settings on Facebook, let me advise that RIGHT EFFING NOW is the perfect moment to do so. You’ll thank me later.
