Orlando, Fla. – She was warned.
Kathy Bidwell, of Orlando, knew that the Timeline was coming to her Facebook profile. She didn't know, however, that the new profile format would allow total strangers to look into her past.
"I was shocked," she said. "They took my privacy settings away from me."
In a demonstration for Local 6, producer Lauren Sweeney was able to visit Bidwell's Timeline and read posts that Bidwell had shared with friends only in the previous format. Some posts were innocuous, some very personal.
"I can see here on Sept. 13, 2010, you posted that your brother Harry passed away from lung cancer, and you're asking for prayers," Sweeney told her.
What followed were several posts describing Bidwell's trauma after the death of her brother.
"Lauren is not one of my friends on Facebook, and when she checked my Timeline, she could read personal things that I had privatized before they changed me to Timeline," Bidwell said. "This is ridiculous."
Under the old profile privacy settings, users could make information available to confirmed friends only. Anyone else would have to make a friend request. Now, as Bidwell and other users have learned, strangers can see what users posted before the introduction of Timeline. Non-confirmed friends can search individual Facebook profiles by date and find all kinds of information intended for friends only.
The solution? Re-privatize.
The experts at PCWorld suggest taking the following steps:
- Go to Privacy Settings, choose "How You Connect" and change the settings for "Who can post on your Timeline?" and "Who can see posts by others on your Timeline?" from "Public" to "Friends."
- Then, go to Privacy Settings, choose "How Tags Work" and change the settings for "Maximum Timeline Visibility" from "Public" to "Friends."
- Completely hiding all past posts is a daunting task. It's a tedious process, but it can be done if you have the time and patience.
Check out more tips from PCWorld.