Facebook is not necessarily a trap for privacy breach if only users know how to take advantage of the site’s privacy controls. However, there is something far greater and bigger than Facebook, and that is the Internet. So, if you wish to reveal yourself in full splendor and candor over the Web, you shall be revealed – and there’s nothing Facebook can do about it.

You can be socially available on Facebook while still keeping your privacy under control. If you want to control who sees what about you, as well as how you’re searched, here’s how:

Split up your friends into different lists, according to your level of preference, intimacy, or proximity. These different groups can be each ascribed your preferred level of permission. ‘Go to the Friends menu and select All Friends. There’s a button at the top that says “Create New List.” Clicking it allows you to create a list of your choosing, then add any of your friends to it. Once you have made your selections, click “Create List,” which adds the new group to the list of your lists on the left-hand column of the page.’

Your life, your person, your profile, your choice of what to put in. You can ‘tweak access to your profile,’ as well as tweak who sees what, even if they are your friends. Everything is under your control. ‘Go to the Settings menu and then pick Privacy settings. Click on Profile and you are presented with drop-downs for every different part of your profile. Certain drop-downs let you customize your lists, but you can’t find out which ones until you click on the Customize option to find out. For example, “Photos Tagged of You” lets me choose only “Some Friends,” then choose which lists I allow to see these photos. If you click over to the “Contact Information” tab, you can then customize who can see what bits of info, down to the tiniest tidbit.’

While you can’t completely control who can find you via Search ‘as specifically as you can with your various profile settings,’ you can still hide some of your information. ‘Going back to the Settings menu > Privacy settings, click on Search. The drop-down for search visibility lets you set which networks can find you via Search, or no networks if you so choose. If you want, you can set it to only Friends of Friends, or just to Friends. Setting it to “Only Friends” means that no one on Facebook will be able to find you via search unless they are already friends with you (presumably this means you befriended them first). From here, you can also choose what strangers can see when they find you through the search.’

So, you see, on Facebook, your privacy is right at your fingertips.

Via ars technica