Security → For Facebook, violating users' privacy is going to backfire someday

 
Eroding trust is a lot easier than restoring it [something Microsoft should think about -c]
»www.computerworld.com/ar ··· day.html

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...The change happened in October but was only recently noticed, according to The Guardian: "Facebook rolled out an update to its internal search engine, letting users search the entire network for the first time....

Every profile on Facebook now shows up when users search for it by name, even those, like mine, with the tightest possible settings, no friends in common, no profile picture, and no content posted. Worse, if you then click on the profile, a large amount of information is still public: any page I've liked, any group I've joined, and, if I had any, every friend I have on the site....

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The key there is anything posted "public". You can still lock down all settings including groups joined, liked pages, friend list, etc.

You can easily already see what you've shared by clicking your name at the top, then the three "dots" next to activity log, then click "view as". That will show what you've share to the public and need to lock down. Easily done. I have one thing that shows when I do that....my cover photo for the profile.

It is harder to manage though and appears intentional. The privacy settings don't control everything. You have to click your name at the top and then scroll down to each individual thing; Friends - click the drop down arrow and you can edit privacy. Change it to friends only or just me. Same goes for the rest of the things...liked pages, etc.

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GuruGuy

 

Another part of that distinction is the difference between "viewable by the public" and "viewable by any logged-on Facebook user" (keeping in mind that Facebook cookies can keep you logged in).

It is the latter, i.e., the logged in Facebook user, of which I think the article mostly speaks. Possibly because the author of the article may think that everyone is a Facebook user.

Same principle applies. Settings can still be locked down as I've described.
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GuruGuy

 
OK, I'll take a second look. Those settings are not at all clear. Sometimes I think, as you mentioned, they are confusing intentionally.

thx for the followup.