Facebook privacy settings

[Charles L. Cotton]

Neither my wife or I are Facebook experts. Heck, we're not even Facebook novices yet! This new "timeline" format is bothering me when it comes to privacy. I just looked at my wife's site and it has a segment titled "Activity - Recent" and it shows things like profile updates, new friends added, etc. and that's fine. However, it also shows that she "browsed Jax 8 month old Boston Terrier in Spring, TX on Marketplace." That bothers me a lot! I don't care that she looked at a Boston Terrier, but it's none of anyone's business what she looks at. I looked for a way to turn this off, but I don't see it on my control panel. However, I'm not using the "timeline" format so that may be why I can't find anything.

Does anyone know how to turn this "feature" off?

Thanks,
Chas.

[Keith B]

That is the problem with the new timeline format, it is VERY open to the public and extremely hard to lock down. I have gotten to the point where I just don't post anything private out there.

[Charles L. Cotton]

That is the problem with the new timeline format, it is VERY open to the public and extremely hard to lock down. I have gotten to the point where I just don't post anything private out there.

The thing that bothers me is that even if she doesn't post anything, it shows what she looked at. It may be limited to market items, but I don't like that either. You can bet she's going to get slammed with spam email trying to sell her something similar to the sections she looked at in a market section.

Chas.

[Keith B]

I think it mainly shows what you 'like' and things you comment on. I haven't seen an influx of new spam related to anything that I could tie to Facebook, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. I am not a Facebook or social media guru by any means, but I bet we have a couple of folks on the forum that are. Hopefully they will chime in soon.

[Tbucher1218]

I just double checked mine and it only shows things that I have liked, commented on or joined. It does not show any pages that I have just browsed. You can also go into privacy settings and set it to only show your activities to friends, friends of friends or public. You can customize it to be sure not to show it to certain people or groups as well. I keep all of mine at friends only. The only thing the public can see on my timeline is my cover picture and any public polls that I have done. If you want to see what it looks like to the public, underneath the cover pictures there is a gear/flower looking icon, click on that and go down to the "view as" It will show you what your public timeline looks like.

Hope this helps

[Divided Attention]

Charles, with her logged in, go to her profile and say "view as", put in someone she is not friends with. This will show you how her page looks to "non-friends". Also, check to the right of the "viewed Boston Terrier" post and hover, a drop down arrow should appear, you might be able to stop this type of thing from posting to her page at all with the drop down choices. Good luck!

[Oldgringo]

.... go into privacy settings and set it to only show your activities to friends....

I just did that. Maybe this deluge of waste (spam) that I've been getting of late will die off?

Good luck.

[mjoplin]

Has anyone found a way to revert back from timeline to the old format?

[Tbucher1218]

I don't believe you can. It wouldn't matter though, I believe after today, they are supposed to convert everyone over to the new timeline.

[v-rog]

When offered the opportunity to "upgrade" to the new timeline format, I declined. I still have the old format version. But like many, I don't post anything that I consider private.