He's A Stalker. She's A Stalker. Wouldn't You Like Be A Stalker Too?

[Billie Tutas/Co-Owner TTR]

As many of you know, all across the web, the chatter is about Face-Book and their newest Stalking tool ----> "See Friendship".

As this option was launched without an opt out feature, thousands of people are closing down their F-B accounts. If you've considered doing that yourself there is a way to grab your content before you make your silent get away. After I show you how to do this I'm going to show you another neat little trick, so
bear with me. Let's start with obtaining your F-B content:

Log in to your F-B account. Click on ---> Account Settings. Now scroll down and you'll notice you have a new tool entitled ---> "Download Your Information". If it's not there F-B hasn't added it to your page yet. Be patient they'll get to you soon enough:

Click download to launch your request for your content. If you've been on F-B for awhile your request will take time. You have to wait for the F-B servers to gather all your status updates, photos and videos. Your download should be ready within the hour. You'll receive an email from F-B with a link to your content. From there you're asked to verify your password and answer security questions. I was asked to identify my friends in photos. After you've passed the security test the "Download Now" button pops up. Verify you have enough space on your pc for the download, mine was 442 MB's. When you're ready, click the download button. Your content will be in a zip file. Within that zip you'll have html files, pictures, videos and a "readme" file. Now, not to worry, your F-B content is still on F-B. All you've done is created an enormous file that contains your doings on F-B.

You don't have to do anything with the file if you choose not to. You can just hang on to it so you'll have it. It is your content and you should get a copy of it before F-B changes it's mind about offering us this option. If you decide to just hang on to your zip file, it's a good idea to occasionally request your content and store in on a flash. You want to keep that as upadated as possible. Once a week will work. If you do that, you can delete prior zip files. The F-B zip file can be loaded on many different Social Media platforms. Some of which are hitting the web with actual privacy, and control, of your Social Media.

A fine example of that is the developing open source platform Diaspora. They launched as a college project last April. Their motto is "Privacy Aware". When it comes to privacy Diaspora is going to be the polar
opposite of F-B. I "Like" that. Right now, the platform is wonky and hard to understand. However, Geeks, and Geekettes like myself are attracted to it. We're waiting patiently for its official release sometime this month. Even if the platform is not a huge success many people, in the circles I travel in, hope to see the concept inspire other Social Networking sites to make changes to what is becoming an epidemic all across the web. We're losing our privacy one setting at a time. In case you haven't noticed, I am an advocate for privacy rights, and having control over what belongs to me, and you. Who do you think rallied to give you the option to hide your comments over on AR Guys? That was me Guys. But, I digress.

Anyway, with all of that said, let's discuss that neat little trick I mentioned earlier. If you'd rather not leave F-B, but you are concerned about the obvious privacy issues that "See Friendship" has created, I have a solution that may be right for you, actually I have two:

Number One:

You can hide your friends list by simply clicking on ---> Privacy settings ---> Connecting on FaceBook ---> View Settings ---> See my friend list. That list can be changed to "Only Me" or whatever setting you're comfortable with. This makes it difficult for your friends, or family, to snoop, or Stalk, your friendships. On this same screen you can also customize your settings for pages you like. I have mine hidden cuzz, well, my likes are sometimes none of your business :)

Number Two:

If you have concerns about what goes on when you're away from your F-B account you can deactivate it in your absence. Many teenagers do this to hide their accounts from the parental units. It's a bit radical but does give you more control over your F-B page. When an F-B account is deactivated it doesn't delete your account. All is does is put your account in hibernation until you reactive it. While the account is hibernating no one can post on your wall, send you messages, or browse your F-B content. That includes all status updates, photos and videos. As soon as you reactivate your account everything pops right back up and it's business as usual. This
technique effectively turns off "See Friendships" on your F-B page and puts a stop to those nosy relatives Stalking your friendships in the late night hours. Or worse, one of your competitors trying to locate some mud to sling. F-B has made these kind of childish behaviors way too easy. On the flip side, deactivating your account takes away all the things you love about F-B. So keep that in mind before deactivating yourself.

There are many other ways to deal with F-B Privacy issues. I'm pretty sure I've figured them all out. When you apply yourself to the task at hand there's always a work around. As time allows I'll be sharing most of what I've learned with you. But let's wait. I know you need time to digest and wrap your brain around the obvious ways in which F-B is going after your privacy for their own gain. Not to mention an agenda that has very little to do with you.

That kinda makes them KaKaHeads, don't ya think?

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