The bad news is we will likely have to do all of this again very soon. Sigh! Facebook, Facebook…they love to change. Keeping up with them certainly makes our job interesting at times. This is the challenge of creating tutorials on social media services. Sometimes they change the entire interface the day after you finish working on them.

Of course, we don’t always respond to these changes. For example, Facebook has changed the labels “Privacy Settings” to “Privacy Preferences” and “Friends Only” to “Friends.” These are not changes that we feel will confuse the learner, so we let them go for now.

However, there are other times when they have major changes or add new features. We have actually set up a new unit called Facebook Changes and New Features, so that we can quickly add a lesson for learners without having to overhaul our current content.

If you have taken our Facebook 101 tutorial in the past, make sure you check back every so often to learn about what’s new, especially in regards to privacy.

Also, keep in mind, you are a great source for letting us know if a tutorial is wrong or out-of-date. Contact us at http://www.gcflearnfree.org/support if you see something that needs updating.

For now, enjoy our new Facebook 101 tutorial while it’s fresh off the presses!

As usually, this has raised all kinds of issues regarding privacy. Facebook allows you to opt out of photo-tagging, but this does not prevent them from collecting data on how to recognize you from images. Opponents to this feature, essentially worry that facial recognition will make it easy to gather information on anyone based on a picture. With 600 million users, Facebook could potentially have the largest and most accurate facial recognition database in the world, which makes some people rather nervous about its future use.

OPT OUT OF PHOTO-TAGGING

If you do not like the idea of being automatically recognized in images, you can disable photo-tagging by following the below procedures in Facebook:

1. Click on the Account tab in the upper right corner of your window
2. Select Privacy Settings
3. Locate and click on Customize settings
4. in the Things Others Share section, locate Suggest photos of me to friends
5. Click the Edit Settings button
6. Click the Enable button and select Disable from the drop-down menu
7. Click Okay to save changes

Keep in mind that opting out of tagging will not prevent Facebook from collecting and storing facial recognition data on users. However, many users are uploading and tagging themselves in photos of inanimate objects like trees or teddy bears in order to confuse Facial Recognition and prevent it from identifying them accurately.

SHOULD YOU CARE?

By now Facebook has established a pattern of releasing privacy-invasive features and automatically opting all its users in to these features. Then there is a backlash in the media complaining about the violations of privacy. Then Facebook releases a statement saying something like “we could have handled it better” (which by now indicates they are either incompetent or truly insincere).

At this point users have three options:

• They can say goodbye to Facebook and close their accounts
• They can do their best to monitor and adjust their privacy settings, thus hoping for some level of control and protection
• They can not worry about it

It’s no secret that the world is becoming more open and social and Facebook definitely promotes this. Privacy may be becoming a thing of the past, but for now every individual must decide what’s best for themselves in regards to Facebook.

For more information on Facebook privacy, visit our Facebook 101 tutorial.

If you have been thinking about getting a Facebook page or still need to adjust the privacy settings for your current page, then our free tutorial will show you how with step-by-step instructions. Our new lessons also help you understand the Facebook experience by giving you recommendations and explanations as needed, so you can make sure you are selecting the settings that will best meet your individual needs.

Check out a few of our new lessons:

• What Can You Do on Facebook?
• Understanding Facebook Privacy
• Facebook’s New Privacy Settings Page
• Add Information to Your Profile
• Finding Friends

Let us know what you think! Already on Facebook? Connect with our GCFLearnFree.org Facebook page and get all the latest news and updates.

The controls are now streamlined for members to more easily opt-out of third-party sharing and even to set all profile information with just one click to be visible to Everyone, Friends, or Friends of Friends. However, it still takes some time to customize these settings and to understand the many new ways your information can be shared.

Facebook is no longer a self-contained social networking site. With “social-plugins” and the new Instant Personalization Pilot Program, members can now link the social networking features of their Facebook account with participating sites all over the web. As a result, there are new privacy controls that affect all members.  It is especially important to update your settings because as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says, “the default is social.”

Members are automatically participating and sharing information with applications, partner websites, and advertisements by default. If you want to have more control over your privacy, you need to customize how the following information is shared:

1. Basic Directory Information: who can search for you on Facebook, and how much of your information is displayed to those people if they search for you
2. Sharing on Facebook: what can be seen about your Profile and Facebook activity
3. Applications and Websites: what Applications, Games, and Websites can see about your Profile and what your Friend’s Applications Games, and Websites can see about your Profile
4. Advertisements: what Facebook and third-party companies can display about your Profile and activity in advertisements

Go to our June 2010 Facebook Privacy Changes lesson to learn how to set your privacy controls. We will continue to keep you updated on any additional changes Facebook makes through our blog. Also, we’re in the process of updating our Facebook 101 tutorial to include these new changes.