LOTS going on these days on the Facebook Privacy front. Practically a full time job to keep up with it. We’re all busy people, and 99% of us care about protecting our privacy online. So here are a few simple tools to help you get your head around your Facebook privacy settings in just a few seconds.

Reclaim Privacy

Great tool that scans your settings. Just install the bookmark, log in to your facebook account, go to the Privacy Settings page and click on “reclaim privacy” in your bookmark bar. It runs a scan of your settings in seconds.

OpenBook

Interesting little site. Openbook is working harder as an awareness tool than anything else, I think. But if your privacy settings aren’t buttoned up, it’s easier than ever for people to find out what you’re posting. That said, I’m fascinated that people say the things they say on Facebook (or anywhere else online) that would be damaging to their professional reputations. But they do! And they do it in droves as this site showcases.

SaveFace

SaveFace^™ by Untangle is a free, easy-to-install Bookmark utility that automatically resets your Facebook settings back to Friends Only for all the following:

• Contact Information
• Search Settings
• Friends, Tags and Connections
• Personal Information and Posts

I haven’t used this one because I don’t want to limit everything within my settings to “Friends Only,” but that might be what some people prefer, so I’ve included it here.

One Final Thought…

I know it’s tough to keep up with all the privacy changes Facebook has been making lately. And I know it’s easy to get frustrated. Supposedly Facebook is going to launch simplified privacy settings soon. My privacy concerns are the same today as they were when I first created this blog and setup my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and various other profiles. I continue to maintain that these are all great tools and technologies — but also that we need to be thoughtful users. That is, THINK before you POST! Same goes for email. You always have to consider that anything you write could be made public, so turn on your internal editor and proceed intelligently. It shouldn’t take all of these privacy smoke and mirror games Facebook is playing to make you mistrust “online privacy” as a whole. Better that you ALWAYS mistrust “online privacy” and post accordingly.

Agree? Disagree? Indifferent? Always happy to hear from you…

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