This'n'That; August Twenty-fourth[FacebookPlaces;LocationPrivacy]

 

When Social Sites' Info Should Be "Reined In"

With the 'tweenies,' teenies, 20 and 30-somethings making full use of the social site phenomenon with posts of everything from the timing of gastric discharges [farts] to those more-than-revealing photos of themselves; there are those of us in the "geezer category" who are loathe to post everything that can be known about us!!  I found the article below{ http://www.lifehacker.com/ } [as well as the next] while surfing around last evening:

    Yesterday [08/22/'10] Facebook rolled out a new feature called Places that lets you and your friends check in to locations, Foursquare-style. If you'd prefer to keep your location private, or at least stop your friends from posting it, here's how.  If you're not convinced that posting your location can be a bad thing, check out PleaseRobMe for some evidence. Of course, if you're careful, check-ins aren't inherently a bad thing. Whether or not you want to disable them is entirely up to you, but Facebook—yet again—has made the assumption that you want to take part in all of their privacy-eroding new features. If you don't, or want a little more control over who can divulge your location, you can make this change pretty quickly through your privacy settings.

1.  Log in to Facebook. From your Account menu, choose Privacy Settings.  Click the Customize option (if it isn't already selected) and then click the "Customize settings" link (it's the one next to the pencil below the table depicting your current privacy settings).
2.  Under the "Things I Share" heading, all the way at the bottom (of that section), there are two things you may want to change. By default "Places I check in" should be set to only be visible by your friends. If you want to limit it more or less, use the drop down menu to do so. I set mine to "Only Me," which is as private as you're going to get. Below that option is "Include me in 'People Here Now' after I check in." It is enabled by default. This will let people know you're at a particular location via the location's page or in a search for people near you. Uncheck "Enable" if you don't want this.
3.  Lastly—and this is the important one—if you don't want your friends to check you into Places, sharing your current location with a bunch of people you may or may not know, go down to the section called "Things Others Share" and find "Friends can check me in to Places." Initially, mine wasn't set to anything at all so the default option could be either choice. Regardless, set this to "Disabled" if you don't want your friends checking you in. Keep in mind that any friend could potentially check you in anywhere. You don't actually have to be there. If you don't want anyone playing a practical joke and checking you in to a strip club, for example, this is a good thing to turn off.

Another 'Good' Site
[From: http://www.pleaserobme.com/ >> 'On location Privacy, and How To Lose It Forever' and the next topic--'Over-Sharing and Location Awareness.'  When you click on either of these topics, you'll be taken to http://www.eff.org/ ; the Electronic Frontier Foundation].  Much of the highly useful information is like this listing of areas that already record your individual location:

•Monthly transit swipe-cards

•Electronic tolling devices (FastTrak, EZpass, congestion pricing)
•Cellphones
•Services telling you when your friends are nearby
•Searches on your PDA for services and businesses near your current location
•Free Wi-Fi with ads for businesses near the network access point you're using
•Electronic swipe cards for doors
•Parking meters you can call to add money to, and which send you a text message when your time is running out

.....and much more, very informative, information--READ and HEED!!
Til Nex'Time....