Facebook

This is embarrassing, don’t look!

embarrassed — From Flickr | Creative Commons

I told you not to look!

Facebook Timeline will Embarrass You

There are changes coming, again, to Facebook and this one promises to be significant. Besides making drastic changes to the open graph, along with changing our layouts, the new Timeline feature is going to be BIG!

If you’ve been under the proverbial rock and don’t know what ‘Timeline’ is all about, let me share with you the basics. Facebook timeline is a chronical of your life on Facebook. All of your FB content is organized and listed in a single long timeline. You can scroll to specific years and see the events, images, video’s or friends you had at that moment.

The Timeline will begin rolling out in a couple weeks and you all will love it! I mean, your supposed to love it. I mean, once you get over the fact that they changed the whole thing again, you’ll live with it. (I’m personally a big fan!)

It’s Automatic Baby!

One of the most interesting features of the new facebook is auto-share. Facebook is making simple to automatically share what you are doing through Facebook connected apps. You will no longer have to click the “Like” button on a page to share that content in your Timeline.

If you are logged in or have granted permission to an app, your information will automatically post to your timeline. Any article you ready, any video you watch, any photo you look at will automatically be connected and shared to your friends. Facebook is calling this “Gestures.”

The possibilities here are both exciting and alarming.

So imagine that you are reading Fox News or CNN.com and you click on the headline article and then you follow a link to a photo and you finish up by watching the latest video from the new room. If you are logged in to the site with your Facebook credentials, the article image and excerpt will post to your timeline, the image with copy will post and the video will be shared for all your friends and friends of friends to see, read, and enjoy.

Oops, I didn’t want that to happen . . .

This sounds all fair and good. But what happens when you click the wrong link and you end up reading an article entitled “Holly ensures breast for six figures.” That now is posted to your wall and your having to explain to your friends or your wife.

There is something you can do

So what do you do? Can you prevent this accidental embarrassment from happening?

Be aware that when you click the “Add to Timeline” button on a website, you are giving your permission to post your activity. This is not a problem if your security settings are set properly. It could bet alarming if they are not.

So here’s the take away. Always remember that the internet is not private. Make sure your settings are set to an appropriate level of security and that you pay attention to what you click and follow.

By the way, if you’d like to have Timeline activated on your Facebook account now, it’s simple to do. You will have to create an app and activate if for page. Here is a simple eight step process to getting Timeline on your page.

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Facebook releases security enhancements

By Alan Smith

If you haven’t noticed, Facebook has been facing alot of criticism lately over its privacy policy. It hasn’t been a very easy few months for the young leader at the center of the internet universe. It seems that many facebook users, have become upset with the policy changes and the Open Graph. Some have even proposed quitting Facebook.

This week, Mark Zuckerberg discussed the new changes with the Washington Post. And today he announced the changes at Facebook offices.

The FIX

The solution to the privacy issues rest in three sets of simple controls: a single control for your content, more powerful controls for your basic information and an easy control to turn off all applications.

If you would like to get a detailed explanation of the direction Facebook is going with the new security features, check out the companies latest blog post. It is obvious that Facebook is listening to the community and trying to improve the security of users data. The question will be have they done enough.

Do you think Facebook’s new security features have gone far enough? Tell us your thoughts!

Gain Better Control over Facebook Logins

By Alan Smith

Facebook has been developing new ways to protect our login procedures from scams and to help keep our accounts more secure. They have recently released a new set of tools and systems designed to keep the bad guys out and help keep you aware of any odd or unusual activity related to your account. Hopefully these measures will allow you, the user, to have better security with your account.

Login Notifications

Login Notifications is a system that allows you to authorize a device you use to access Facebook regularly and to be notified whenever your account is being accessed from a device you have not approved. This should help keep you aware of potential hacks or unauthorized access to you account.

Facebook has provided the following instructions on how to activate and utilize this feature:

To try it out, go to the Account Settings page and click on the link next to “Account Security” at the bottom of the page. If you select the option to receive notifications for logins from new devices, when you log in, you’ll be asked to name and save the various devices you use to access Facebook.

You can save your home computer, your school computer or work computer, and your mobile device. Once you have registered these devices, whenever someone attempts to login to your account from another device, Facebook will ask to name the device.

An email or text message will be sent to you, the account holder, immediately. This will notify you on how to reset your password and remove the device, so that you can quickly secure your account.

Blocking Suspicious Logins

Facebook has also created a system that will block suspicious login attempts before they happen. If Facebook notices someone trying to access your account from an “unusual device,” a series of questions will be asked to be verified to prove the identity of the user. The questions are intended to be easy for the account holder, such as your birthday or identity of a friend in a photo, but hard for an unauthorized user.

Once you have confirmed your identity, you will be able to review recent logins and modify your account if you see anything suspicious.

The steps that Facebook have taken to reduce the risk of one’s account being hacked is good. They are obviously listening to the Facebook community and trying to develop better security features to protect our content and identity. Do you think these features will help keep your account safer? What do you think of these systems?

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Facebook releases security enhancements

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Facebook Timeline will Embarrass You

It’s Automatic Baby!

Oops, I didn’t want that to happen . . .

There is something you can do

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