Ever since FourSquare started getting traction amongst some of my friends I started doing more research on the dangers of broadcasting your location. I came across FourSquare: A Stalker’s Delight and that post made it clear that people are the ones that tend to generate their own privacy problems by not understanding what they are really doing and by not paying more attention to controlling their privacy.
Enter Facebook Places, another location service along the lines of FourSquare with some Yelp mixed in.
Naturally the first thing everyone worries about with new features from Facebook is privacy but thankfully this time they seem to have provided lots of control from day one. Facebook Places allows you to check-in at a location, leave a comment, see others who are checked in and have friends check you into a location.
Those features quite rightly raise some privacy concerns.
(1) Will all my friends be able to see where I just checked in?
Only if you have it set that way.
Click Account > Privacy Settings > Customize Settings and you can set exactly who can see that you have checked in. You can even set it so that you are the only one who sees it, the same as keeping check-ins private on FourSquare (see image below).
(2) Will strangers be able to know that I just checked in at?
Again, only if you set it that way.
On the same Customize Settings page you can check a box to Enable being included in the People Here Now listing (See image below).
(3) Can Friends check me in to places?
Yes, if you have it set to Enabled.
Don’t want a friend to check you in at somewhere you really aren’t? (Some friends are that mischievous) then just Disable it via the Customize Settings page (see image below).
So there you have it, the current privacy settings for Facebook Places will allow you to check in at a location, not share it with a single person, not show up on the list of people currently checked in and prevent other people form checking you in, if you want it that way.
My personal settings are that Friends can see where I check-in, I show up on the list and no one can check me in.
Why?
I control when and where I check-in so if I am checking in, I probably want to share where I am, like a theme park, a restaurant, a concert or conference. I also want other people at somewhere like a conference to know that I am there because they can click my profile, learn more about me and probably try to grab a lunch or dinner to discuss business.
Facebook Places will be a new tool that I use for networking and I can’t wait to test it at a conference, probably MIXX in NY at the end of September.
I care for such info much. I was looking for this certain information for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.
. “Every moment of one’s existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.” by Norman Mailer.
