Avoid Facebook Disasters
Too Many Pieces of Flair
The disaster: Donna has accepted one too many gifts of Star Wars figurines and cutesy buttons--and now her profile page is stuffed with enough frivolous junk to embarrass a fourth-grader. That page didn't go over well with the hiring manager at the job she was applying for. She heard through the grapevine that she didn't get the gig because he found her page and thought she wasn't serious enough to merit an offer.
The solution: Paring down the digital clutter isn't as tough as cleaning out the garage, but it does take some effort. However, if you allowed, say, a trivial quiz to drop a box into the left column of your Info page, it's relatively easy to get rid of. Just click the pencil icon located in the top-right corner of the box and then select Remove Box.
Next, turn an eye toward locking down what applications-whether they appear on your page or not-are permitted to post to your account. On the Privacy Settings page, click News Feed and Wall, and you can start paring down the amount of junk that Facebook uses to automatically populate your Recent Activity. What you choose here is a matter of personal preference, and how spare you want your page to appear. Unchecking boxes on this page means fewer items on your profile. The selections are largely self-explanatory, so tweak at will.
But just removing an application box on your Profile page does not remove the app from your profile completely. To do that, you have to go behind the scenes a little. Click the Applications button at the bottom left of the page, and then click Edit Applications in the menu that pops up. Change the ‘Show' drop-down to ‘Authorized', and you'll see every application that you have given access to your profile. If you're like me, you'll have dozens and you won't remember most of them.
First, delete anything you no longer use (or want to use) by clicking the X, then Remove at the pop-up. For the apps you wish to keep, you can make them less chatty by clicking Edit Settings. Click Additional Permissions and uncheck Publish recent activity to my wall, and you'll no longer see updates when you play a Facebook game or send a goofy "gift" to your girlfriend.
Shoulda Been Working
The solution: Putting aside whether he should have been playing the game, Dylan would have been better served by turning off the ability for third-party Web sites to post to his profile, a feature known as Facebook Beacon.
To disable this, visit Privacy Settings, then Applications. Click the Settings tab. Scroll down and check Don't allow Beacon websites to post stories to my profile, under the Facebook Beacon header.
The Tell-Tale Heart
The disaster: Nancy broke up with her boyfriend and changed her relationship status to ‘single'. Now a giant red heart is announcing her newfound availability to the world. An item in the right-hand ‘Highlights' column announces the fact to all her friends. The trouble is, the thing looks like a singles ad.
Smile for the Camera
The disaster: Someone tagged Ben in a photo on Facebook, and he hates the shot, taken at a party--his eyes are closed, and he's clearly inebriated.
The solution: While you can't delete someone else's photograph (try asking nicely), it's easy to remove a tag of yourself from any picture, which will remove it from Facebook's ‘View Photos of Me' pages. To do so, just find the offending picture and click remove tag next to your name in the caption. Once the tag is removed, you won't be able to be retagged on that particular photo.
You're Not an Advertisement
The disaster: Bruno was horrified to discover that his name was attached to an ad that was spammed to his friends without his permission. What gives?
Spam Central
The disaster: Kris woke up one morning to discover that her Facebook friends had been spammed with a message, "Check out mygener.at." She didn't send the message, and is reasonably worried that her account was hacked.
Indeed, Facebook is becoming a popular target for scammers, phishers, and spammers. The method typically used involves a phishing site (often with ‘.at' in the URL) that looks just like Facebook and thereby tricks you into giving up your password and user name. The site then takes control of your account and begins spamming your contacts with the phishing site's URL in the hopes of obtaining even more log-ins.
The solution: Conventional security software won't help much with attacks like this--though antiphishing add-ons can help to some extent--so using common sense is our best advice. Keep your password private, and make sure the site you're visiting really is Facebook and not a malicious knock-off.
Get a Vanity Facebook URL
You wouldn't host your personal Web site on a Tripod account with a randomly generated URL. So why should you settle for a Facebook page whose URL is indicated by nothing but a numerical ID?
Memorable Web Address (apps.facebook.com/webaddress/) gives you a vanity URL that redirects to your Facebook profile (or any page or group); for example, ‘http://profile.to/null' instead of ‘http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=718386140'. If you would like to put your Facebook link on your business card or e-mail signature, this is a convenient way to de-uglify things considerably. (Of course, you can also use your favorite URL-shortening service to do a similar job, too.)
Set Facebook's E-Mail Permissions
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