FACEBOOK

edited due to miss leading, sorry please lock this post !

This is one of the best designed Facebook fakes I've seen. All the directions can be followed, and thanks to Facebook's lack of clarity, the "likes and comments" and the "photos" checkboxes can easily be interpreted the way that the originator of the spam-mail intends it to be interpreted.

As far as I can see, however, what these checkboxes really do is modify what you get in your news feed. All the ticked boxes are what ends up in your news feed, more or less. By unticking these boxes, you hide your friend's photos, comments and likes from your own news feed - it has nothing to do with his information "going public".

If you want to really see what Facebook information is public on your timeline, then head over to your timeline and click the gearwheel (settings) icon next to the Activity log icon. In the pop-up menu, select "View As...", which is by default set to Public view. You now see your timeline as if you were somebody who was neither one of your friends, nor a friend of your friends. If you're not happy with what you see, head over to your privacy settings and alter them to your liking.

When it comes to fakes like this, the best tell is if you find a line like "Now, copy and paste this on your wall. Once I see this posted on your page I will do the same", which could be rephrased as "If you don't make this post go viral, I won't help you and you'll be doomed". If it has anything to do with your damnation to eternal virginity or a sudden death in bed tonight (again), those are fake too.

trying to preserve your own internet privacy is so 2000 and late

sorry to the above..i was miss lead, from a friend...

In what way did it work? What happened before which you've noticed doesn't happen since? I'm curious, and not uninclined to change my opinion if I am proven incorrect.

However, as of right now I am not convinced. Under the Adverts section in in Facebook's privacy settings, you can read this text:

... says:
Facebook does not give third party applications or advert networks the right to use your name or picture in adverts. If we allow this in the future, the setting you choose will determine how your information is used.

You may see social context on third party sites, including in adverts, through Facebook social plugins. Although social plugins enable you to have a social experience on a third party site, Facebook does not share your information with the third party sites hosting the social plugins.

So unless they are outright lying, they are not allowing your pictures to be used by others for advertisements.

Under that setting, you can select that if they allow this feature in the future, "show my information to no one".

sorry broadsword is right and i am wrong, edited post

Broadsword is quite right. This is a bit of a hoax. Or at the very least, it's very misleading.

Disabling the notifications setting will only remove that persons posts from your feed, so you will have to go to their facebook page to see their posts. It's only inconveniencing yourself by following the instructions in that post.

The setting you need to watch out for if you don't want your posts broadcasted beyond your circle of friends is the setting that dictates who the post is shared with. You see this setting when you go to make a post.

I recommend sharing with "Friends" and not "Friends of friends". That way your posts are only shared with your circle of friends, and not also with all of your friends' friends.

However, people can still copy the photo/post and share it more broadly, or use the share function in Facebook.

The best thing is not to post anything online unless you are prepared that what you post could possibly become completely public. Once something is digitized, it's all too easy to pass it on. You can take precautions and safeguards, but ultimately the only completely sure fire form of privacy is to never post it in the first place.

Orwell would have loved Facebook.
Also great to see how you can replace a fascist regime with some browsergames and it still works...

Sorry for going a bit off-topic.

OK guys i was taken in for what someone sent me in the first place...argh sorry for posting the first post which as now been edited to stop others doing it...

i say sorry to the above ^^^^

It could happen to anyone. It makes me wonder what things I've fallen for in the past though.