Follow Newser on Twitter   Friend Newser on Facebook
Snappy newsletters. Simple Facebook sharing. Spirited comments. Sweet features are waiting… GET THEM NOW!

NEWS ABOUT: Facebook privacy settings

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>

Switch to grid view »

Some Employers, Schools Demand Facebook Logins

Maryland may ban practice

(Newser) - Some employers and colleges have found an ingenious way around Facebook's pesky privacy settings: Simply demand that applicants or students friend you, give you a tour of their account, or even divulge their usernames and passwords. MSNBC reports on a number of places instituting the troubling practices:
  • At Maryland'
... More »

Women More Likely to Unfriend

They're also a lot more cautious with their content

(Newser) - Women are the less fair sex when it comes to social networking. Ladies are a little more likely to delete friends on sites like Facebook and Twitter than gentlemen are, and a lot more likely to keep their pages private, reports AFP . A Pew Research Center study found that 67%... More »

Google's Photo ID Feature Calms Privacy Fears

Security experts applaud opt-in requirement

(Newser) - Google has quietly launched a facial recognition service for Google+, but unlike Facebook's more intrusive photo ID feature , Google is earning praise from privacy experts for keeping Find My Face an opt-in feature, reports eWeek . Like Facebook's Tag Suggestions, which launched about a year ago, Find My Face... More »

Facebook Overhauls Privacy Controls

You'll now have more visible controls, the ability to approve tags of yourself

(Newser) - Facebook will go live with a host of changes over the next few days designed to address its ever-present privacy concerns. Now, instead of hiding all your privacy controls in the account settings menu, Facebook will display a drop-down menu next to each element of your profile, letting you dictate... More »

Facebook Ready to Cash in On Your Data

Facebook ads mining user data like never before

(Newser) - After seven years of concentrating on the cool, Facebook is finally ready to cash in. The social networking giant is starting to mine its immense database to match users to advertisers like never before, reports the LA Times . Facebook's ad revenue reportedly doubled last year to $2 billion, and... More »

Is This Sarah Palin's Secret Facebook Page?

If so, then she's using it to comment on her public Facebook page

(Newser) - Among the more interesting, if indirect, revelations from the leaked Sarah Palin tell-all : The former Alaska guv appears to have a secret personal Facebook account … which she has used to comment on her other, public Facebook page. Jack Stuef over at Wonkette discovered the page thanks to an apparent... More »

Fix This Facebook Setting as Fast as You Can

Gawker: HTTPS encryption can keep you from getting hacked

(Newser) - Facebook has begun rolling out an important new protection, and Gawker's Ryan Tate says users should "jump on this" as soon they can. It's an encryption tool called Facebook HTTPS that will "keep any random jerk in the café from hijacking your account." Unfortunately, users have to... More »

Germany Says 'Nein' to Facebook's Friend Finder

Privacy concerns forces Facebook to change invitation feature

(Newser) - Score one for Germany in its face-off with Facebook. Facebook has agreed to drop its controversial "Friend Finder" feature, which allows the social networking site to access users' address books and send invitations to the people in them. "For many, it wasn't clear at all how Facebook could... More »

Facebook Apps Are Leaking Your Personal Data

Company 'working to fix problem'

(Newser) - Your oh-so-strict Facebook privacy settings aren't necessarily protecting you: Many popular Facebook applications have been transmitting identifying information to dozens of firms, a Wall Street Journal investigation has discovered. It's an issue that affects ten of millions of users and one that breaks the company's own rules about privacy. A... More »

Germany Bans Bosses From Checking Your Facebook

Some 45% of employers vet applicants on social-networking sites

(Newser) - You look great in your interview duds and make a smashing first impression, so what could torpedo your chances of getting the job? Those Facebook photos of you doing a kegstand. Move to Germany, reports der Spiegel, where Berlin has recently banned bosses from checking would-be employees' social-networking profiles. The... More »

Prober Posts 100M Facebook Profiles Online

Downloadable file includes names, URLs

(Newser) - A security researcher has collected and posted the details of 100 million Facebook users to highlight privacy issues. Ron Bowes of Skull Security used a piece of code to trawl the Internet for the names and unique URLs of users who didn't change their privacy levels from Facebook's default settings,... More »

Zuckerberg: I Don't Care About Money

Revenue 'factors in, like, not at all'

(Newser) - Mark Zuckerberg went on a revealing rant the other day when asked how Facebook's new privacy settings would affect its business model. “We didn't talk about revenue at all,” he replied, and implied that he and his cohorts never thought about it. He said they genuinely believe Facebook... More »

Facebook Privacy Changes a Good First Step

New settings seem relatively easy to control

(Newser) - Facebook's unveiling of changes to give users more control over privacy (details from Mark Zuckerberg here ) is getting a decent reception on the tech blogs. Here's a sample:
  • Kevin Bankston, Electronic Frontier Foundation : They reverse "some of the worst of Facebook's privacy missteps," but "we still
... More »

Angry Facebook Users Search for the Exit

Open-source Facebook rival gathers steam

(Newser) - The newest and hottest Facebook trend is quitting Facebook. Some of the site's 400 million users—including several high-profile technology pundits—have been deleting their accounts, citing privacy concerns. The social networking site doesn't release statistics on how many people scuttle their accounts, but Google searches on how to quit... More »

Facebook Privacy Policy: Longer Than the Constitution

Shy people have a lot of clicking to do

(Newser) - If you want to understand Facebook's privacy policy, you better have a comfy chair and lots of time on your hands. At 5,830 words, the policy is longer than the US Constitution (a pithy 4,543 words), the New York Times notes. And that's assuming you understand all the... More »

Facebook Bug Leads to Fresh Privacy Mess

Chat disabled as company scrambles to fix issue

(Newser) - Curious Facebook users found themselves able to access a mega-dose of TMI this week, thanks to a hole in the system that made private chats public. TechCrunch reports that, ironically, the bug occurred because of a flaw in Facebook's privacy settings: Users can now see how their profile appears to... More »

Employee: Zuckerberg 'Doesn't Believe' in Privacy

Which helps explain the new settings

(Newser) - Two dispatches today from the Facebook privacy wars: In an off-the-record conservation with a New York Times reporter, a Facebook employee laughed when asked how Mark Zuckerberg feels about privacy: "He doesn't believe in it." The reporter tweeted about the exchange, and Bianca Bosker of the Huffington Post... More »

Senators to Facebook: Privacy Changes Suck

Oh, and fancy an FTC investigation?

(Newser) - It's not just tech geeks freaking out about the new Facebook changes; apparently they're causing hand-wringing in the very halls of Congress. Four Democratic senators—Chuck Schumer, Al Franken, Mark Begich and Michael Bennet—have sent an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg complaining that the changes give users less control... More »

Prof Suspended for 'Hitman' Facebook Quip

University says allusion to violence had to be taken seriously

(Newser) - A fed-up sociology professor who joked about wanting to hire a hitman for troublesome students has become yet another employee facing Facebook fallout. Gloria Gadsden's bosses at Pennsylvania's Stroudsburg University put her on indefinite leave after a student told them about her update reading "Does anyone know where I... More »

Facebook Privacy: Two Opposing Takes

Maybe 'privacy' is evolving; or this is just about making money

(Newser) - Facebook's decision to make users' private data public is still reverberating, and Michael Arrington wishes the "Luddites" opposed to the development would just be quiet and face up to a modern reality: "Privacy is already really, really dead." Big companies already know the intimate details of our... More »

Stories 1 - 20 |  Next >>
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS
Other Sites We Like:   24/7 Wall St.   |   BuzzFeed   |   Cracked   |   Timelines   |   Geek Sugar   |   Business Insider   |   HuffPost Entertainment