How do you use Facebook?

Do you, like me, use it as a supplementary publishing platform in addition to your blog, website, online photo gallery, Twitter stream, and so on – even though this online presence of yours is technically within a gated community? If so, then you’re probably already careful about what you upload there. And by that I mean you only upload stuff that you would be happy to share with everyone you know including friends, family, acquaintances, classmates, colleagues, employers, future employers, users of Google Search, and so on. If this is the case, then your privacy settings on Facebook are probably fine they way they are, even if they are all at their default values.

If, however, you use Facebook as more of a private website – i.e. one maintained more strictly within a gated community of your choosing (e.g. something that only friends or family can access) sort of like MyFamily.com – then you might want to read Nick O’Neill’s recent article on ‘10 Privacy Setting Every Facebook User Should Know’.

Facebook gives you a great deal of control over who gets to see which parts of your online profile including your wall, newsfeeds, photos, applications, friends lists, and so on. It also lets you control who gets updated when someone else tags you in a photo or video that they have uploaded. If you didn’t already know all of this, then that article is certainly worth a read.

[Via Laurel Papworth]