A new, viral warning has many moms and concerned Facebook users in a panic. An example of one such message is shown below:
The uproar is over Facebook Community Pages that automatically aggregate data based users’ likes and interests. Here’s what’s happening, a user clicks on one of these community pages, and then that user sees posts, photos etc. from their friends that have the keyword in a status update. For example, if I type the word animal in the Facebook Search bar and click on that Community Page, this is what is displayed:
If you were to scroll down further on this page, then you would see specific posts that my friends have made related to ‘animals.’ If you notice the arrow above, it’s pointed to an explanation of the content located on this page. Here is the text:
This Page is automatically generated based on what Facebook users are interested in and not affiliated with or endorsed by anyone associated with the topic.
So everyone can rest easy. In this case people aren’t swiping baby pictures and using them to populate random pages. It is important to make sure that your privacy settings are set appropriately for everything you share on Facebook. Of course, if someone sets the sharing options of an image of their child to public, then it would be very easy for it to be stolen and show up anywhere online. We recommend setting everything that you can to ‘Friends Only.’ This post highlights the dangers and the potential privacy exposure by just sharing with Friends of Friends.
Recommended Resources
PRIVATE WiFi® is a Personal VPN that encrypts everything you send and receive. Don’t access Facebook from a public WiFi hotspot without it.
SocialSafe helps you to create your library of you. It’s the safest place for your online life. Downloaded to your computer, auto organised and instantly searchable. Supports most major social networks.
BitDefender Safego is a Facebook application you can install that will scan your News Feed and help keep you safe from scams on Facebook.