The biggest complaint I often heard from professionals about using Facebook as a networking tool was the lack of granular (read: very specific) control over just what “friends” of theirs see their information. Facebook has just remedied this by allowing just such granular control. While Facebook has always worked out well for college students, these privacy additions really take Facebook a step toward professional networking (akin to LinkedIn). So just how do you use these settings to ensure your co-worker doesn’t see those incriminating pictures of yours?
1. Head to the privacy control page (must be logged in to access it).
2. Choose what you want to modify the privacy of. I selected “Profile”.
3. Now, I don’t want any of my co-workers to see my Personal Information. Find that on the page and click “Edit Custom Settings”
4. A mini-menu area will pop-up. I want to restrict anyone who is part of my work network from seeing my personal information. To do this, I select “Some Of My Networks”. Remember, this is Who Can See This? so you’ll want to select those networks that you want to see your personal information.
5. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’re done!
That was just one example of something you could change. Facebook did a pretty decent job of giving you control of even some smaller parts of your Facebook Account’s Privacy (like status messages, etc).
For the record, my granular control was the “Reject” button on friend requests. But hey, these additions are nice, too :)