>Facebook’s NEW Profile explained. by Unofficial Guide to FB Privacy and Security

> Tweet

Unofficial Guide to FB Privacy and Security

Unofficial Guide to FB Privacy and Security Check out our screenshot guide to the New Profile. Facebook states privacy settings are unaffected, however users are prompted to share far more than they did before, prompted to tag friends in much more than just photos, and creating a ‘Featured Relationship’ list might let slip your privacy setting secrets unless you’re careful. 

 

Facebook’s NEW Profile explained.

One of the first things I noticed with the new profile is how many pop up boxes Facebook prompts users with to give more information. One of Facebook’s engineers told Time Magazine that if people don’t load info into a section, Facebook will “try to educate them”. I found this quite disturbing, apparently the only reason you’ve left a section blank is because you’re not smart enough to know how to fill it? Here’s the video:
http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,712448402001_2037228,00.html

So this is the man in charge of the team that created the new profile. I had to find a public profile that used Facebook’s defaults and I thought I’d introduce you to the main guy.

1. Mini Cv.

2. 5 most recent photos you were tagged in/ profile pictures. (Depending on privacy settings). These can be removed by hovering over the delete ‘x’ but members have reported they have come back. I am waiting for a response from Facebook.

3. Information navigation panel. Josh’s photos are private so we don’t see that link.

4. Relationship status complete with profile picture of partner.

5. ‘Featured’ Friends list. On the old profile you can choose which friends appear in your panel. On the new profile you can still do that but you have to create a friends list with your top friends and place it on your profile. ( screenshot further on will show this function)

6. Family list. Again this is a ‘Featured’ friends list. His friends list is below these (you can view his complete profile here: http://www.facebook.com/joshwiseman). Please DO NOT message Josh with your thoughts on this profile. Messaging users you do not know violates Facebook’s terms. Message settings at ‘everyone’ are so someone you know but hasn’t friended you yet can get in touch.

7. New info sections. You can see how many times just in the Employers section users are urged to tag people.

8. Message and poke (if enabled) buttons are relocated here.

9. Friendships is now very prominent at the top of the profile under messages. If you aren’t friends but have something in common, it will show there. So Josh and I both ‘like’ the White Stripes.

These are the sections moved or removed in the new profile (photo from insidefacebook).

You’ll remember we shared to you earlier this year that Facebook had removed the privacy settings for their won apps such as events, groups, links etc. So we could contrl the privacy of the content uploaded, but not the privacy of the tabs and boxes. Users also controlled who could see events they were invited to from those settings. Perhaps now we know why they were removed along with other changes since – all roads seem to lead to this.

The decision to remove people’s links from their profile is possibly the most unfathomable and is sure to cause much upset in a year which has seen Facebook remove users likes and interests and replace them with their own choice of Page, and the removal of users application tabs and boxes. Now the only way to find a link you have uploaded is to scroll down your wall or click ‘Links’ on the home page and syphon through the congealed mess that is yours and your friends links combined.

If you can’t find your links etc, type Links or Events etc into the search box. You’ll also find them on the left on your news feed home page. Click ‘See More’ if they are obscured.

The videos you’re tagged in tab has also gone. This means users have to find them in the obscured photos link also on the home page.

The ‘Write something about yourself’ box has been removed as has the box to highlight their websites. The emphasis is definately on what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with in an effort to expand friendships and tighten networks, while areas for self expression are out.

Likes no longer feature on the profile, instead they will only feature under Info.

New position of Message and Poke on another persons profile.

Please note – if someone has updated to the new profile and you haven’t, they will see your profile in the new format when they visit your page. If you don’t want to update and you don’t want your photos put in a banner for them to see, put your privacy settings on tagged photos and profile photos to Only Me. Click Account > Privacy Settings > Customize Settings > Edit Album Privacy.

Ok so now we know why Facebook removed the setting for their own Applications like links/ videos etc. The tabs are gone from users profiles. This is one of the biggest complaints to date about the new profile. If a user wants to find a link on a friends page they will have to scroll down their wall to see it, or find it amongst all their other friends links from the home page. And to find their own links they have to go to the home page. (Image left).

If Links aren’t shown, click the ‘See More’ link which will appear instead of the ‘Less’ one I’ve circled. This will show you all your Facebook apps. Click ‘Links’ and you’ll find all your links and those your friends have uploaded that you’re authorised to see. This is the same for videos, groups, notes etc. You cannot access those from your profile anymore.

To navigate around your profile (image right), click wall, info, phots, friends. You will be able to edit those sections after clicking them.

This is the page which appears when you edit Family/ Relationships.

When you add a family name you’ll be prompted to enter their email address so that Facebook can send them an invitation to confirm your family request. You don’t HAVE to enter their email address.

If they are already a Facebook friend, they will receive a Facebook message asking them to confirm they are your Father/ Sister/ etc. If they are not your Facebook friend, Facebook wants them on here and that’s why they ask you for their email address. Always remember, people trust you with their email address/ phone number. Facebook will ask you to give other people’s information to them. Never do so without consent.

On this section you can also rearrange your profile friends. So if you have a friend box with ‘Family’, and a friend box with ‘Friends’, you can drag and drop into whatever order you like. Go back to Josh Wiseman’s screenshot to recap how different friends sets look like on a profile.

The Edit Education and Work section.

When users click on a selection from the navigation panel, they will be shown the info page. They can click ‘Edit’ which then opens up that section.

Here you start to notice how much more info Facebook now wants from you, and how many times you’re prompted to tag your Facebook friends. If you click ‘With’ your friends list will appear below and you’ll be prompted to select people. The more you add, the more you’ll be urged to tag. So clicking ‘Add a Class’ will create another tag prompt.

NEVER tag anyone without their consent. You don’t know if they want their activities/ college life on their wall, which a tag will do. Remember, Facebook’s terms state you will not tag others in anything without their consent.

If someone tags you without consent you can untag yourself. Never be afraid to tell someone you don’t want them to tag you.

You may recall I discussed tagging with the Director for Public Policy, Tim Sparapani. I argued that if Facebook were to notifiy users of a tag request which could be accepted/ denied, no one would be tagged without consent. Clearly this has been ignored

The Edit Philosophy section.

You’ll notice that Facebook have changed some names and moved things around. So if you click on ‘People who inspire you’, you’ll be given a text box and Facebook pages appear when you type their name. When you choose one, they are placed into a ‘Top 5’ which you can drag and drop into whatever order you want. You have to click ‘Save Changes’.

The Edit Sport Section.

Once again users are urged to tag their friends to the sports they play. I will draw your attention to the fact that in all these tagging prompts by Facebook, they don’t at any time show the users that one small sentence from their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (http://www.facebook.com/terms.php):

5. Protecting Other People’s Rights
5.9.You will not tag users or send email invitations to non-users without their consent.

If they did, perhaps their own product wouldn’t be abused so much every time they prompted users to use it.

The Edit Activities and Interests section,

And again with the tagging prompts.

In all of these sections users can rearrange their choices with drag and drop. The downside is, your interest and activites are still Facebook’s choice if page. So if your activity isn” listed you’ll just have to be happy with a close alternative (which isn’t you) or… a Community Page {{{shudders}}}.

Remember the good old days when we had fun telling our friends what we do and what we like?

On the New profile page, users can hover their cursor at the top right of a friends / family/ featured relationship and click a pencil icon (Edit) which will send the user to edit that section.

This is how friends lists look on the new profile after clicking ‘Friends’ on the left navigation panel.

Users can create friends lists as before, by clicking the ‘Edit Friends’ button shown top right.

Users can add an existing Friends list as a Featured Relationship. (Again remember Josh Wiseman had his created Friends List up top, then his Family, and his usual Friends.

A Featured Relationship will appear on a users profile once created.

A featured Relationship is not the same as a Friend’s List/ Filter which is part of your privacy settings. If you add someone to a featured Relationship they will be notified of the fact which simply tells them you’ve placed them in a specific group of people on your profile like ‘Work’ or ‘School’.

This doesn’t affect your privacy setting Friends Lists/ Filters which remain anonymous, and anyone in a featured Relationship will still be subject to any privacy settings you may or may not have placed on them. This is very simply creating a group of people to ‘Feature’ on your profile. You can create as many or as few as you wish, or none at all. But you can make one of your existing Friend’s Lists into a Featured Relationship.

HOWEVER – If you decide to create a Featured Relationship with an existing friends list – be cautious. If you’re using that list to exclude data from certain people it might become apparent if you decide to feature that list on yoru profile. Probably not a good idea if you have a list called ‘Everyone but Joe Bloggs’ – Joe might feel a bit put out…

To do this users click ‘Create New List’ to make a selection of friends. Once done, they click Add an existing list or group which creates this pop-up. Selecting one of the lists creates a Featured Relationship set.

So on old profiles users can choose quite simply which top friends they want shown all the time on their profile and can rearrange where they go on their profile. Now they can’t do that, instead they would have to create a list and make it a Featured Relationship. Which kind of points out to the rest of their friends who they like best

If users want to remove a Featured Relationship from their profile, they click Edit Friends and hover their cursor to the right of the one they want to remove. An ‘X’ will appear which when clicked lets them remove that set from their profile. The list will still be intact, it just won’t appear on the profile anymore.

That’s it for now. I don’t have the new profile yet so if you have experiences with something not covered, please let me know and I will incorporate them.

Ultimately the goal is clear. More information to target advertisers, less self expression and privacy. If you don’t want certain things displayed on your profile you’ll have to delete them or set them to ‘Only Me’. Users may find themselves emptying their info boxes and doing what we did 2 years ago, write it down in say the Bio section. Users will find themselves tagged without consent, they will be pressured into getting the new profile by peers who are less informed as to the consequences of sharing so much on a site owned by a stranger, and this is most likely just the beginning of an overhaul which seems unnessesary and inflexible.

Facebook’s FAQ’s on the new Profile:
http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=new_profile

Facebook Suggestion Form for the New Profile, plus link to bug report form:
http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=ui_new_profile

(for instance many users have suggested to Facebook to return the status update to the top of the profile)

Ok so I wanted to start by showing you a comparison of old and new. I’ve chosen Mark Zuckerberg for two reasons. Firstly because it’s his site. And you’ll find out the secondly on the next screenshot. This was Mark Zuckerberg’s profile info before the change. (Ignore the block pop-up, I’ve used an image from Google’s database.)

So this is Mark’s profile after the change. The first thing I noticed was how much room on our profiles has been given over to advertising space – all the way over to the left of the Home button. Flip between the two – startling. Hence the new font size – we squint so you can have bigger ads

Here’s where the secondly comes in – Marks profile doesn’t show all the changes because ironically he doesn’t use Facebook’s recommended default privacy settings and so some things are missing.

Here you’ll notice that the top shows a mini-cv of mark. Now Mark’s friends should already know this. But this section remains even when left blank and there are more info sections than before. This section is there to urge users to upload more data about themselves than before.

You’ll notice you no longer navigate between wall, info etc on the top of a profile. That’s all moved to the left hand panel.

The biggest change is that Facebook now urges users to tag their friends as colleagues/ classmates/ team mates etc. So if you enter that you went to Oxford University you will be urged to tag any Oxford Uni Facebook friends as people you went with.

You all know my issue with tagging. Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities states that users will not tag others without their consent. But Facebook urge people to tag their friends in photos and now in their profile information without reminding people of this fact. It is the most abused Facebook product and it is Facebook who are urging people to abuse it because they don’t place that one small sentence anywhere they prompt people to tag. This is going to cause huge issues. What if a friend tags you as a sports team mate, or a classmate in a course you didn’t want all your friends to know you did? Yes that friend could simply write on your wall ‘Joe Bloggs went to this course with me’ – but Facebook isn’t urging them to do that and so they probably wouldn’t even think to do it.

I wonder if Mark emailed all the people he has tagged in his info section to ask their permission to tag them?

The BULLDOG Estate