Facebook's New Community Pages

Your status on Facebook might be going global on their new community pages.

2010-04-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

To illustrate this point I put as my status: Does the world really need to know I went to Walmart to buy diapers?

Then I found my post in the Diapers & Walmart community groups:

People keep asking me for a complete list of community groups but the list is endless and keeps growing. Make sure your Facebook posts are set to FRIENDS only or ALL of Facebook can read what you have posted when you use certain words and phrases. If you a post shows up as Friend Related only friends should be able to see them. If they say Global Related you need to double check your privacy settings. If you are not very careful with your settings and what you post strangers might see such things as:

What your doing right now:

Brushing my teeth
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brushing-My-Teeth/360490348996?ref=ts

Brushing my hair
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brushing-My-Hair/377140794239?ref=ts

Going out:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Going-Out/360505848691?ref=ts
--

Your employment status:

my new job:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-New-Job/392418649046?ref=ts

unemployed
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unemployed/106538642715857?v=stream&ref=ts
--

Your spiritual activities:

church
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Church/110200669005247?ref=ts

Going to church:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Going-to-Church/377883438185?ref=ts

Dear Lord
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dear-Lord/417024516232?v=stream&ref=ts

Praying
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Praying/110671915619718?v=stream&ref=ts
--

What you are eating:

Eating Pizza
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eating-Pizza/376318292684?ref=ts

Eating chicken
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eating-Chicken/389426289512?ref=ts

Eating McDonalds:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eating-Mcdonalds/112390018781130?ref=ts

Eating KFC:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eating-Kfc/10150139033200790?ref=ts
--

What you are buying:

Buying
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Buying/114574195224416?v=stream&ref=ts

Buying books
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Buying-Books/367532432241?v=stream&ref=ts

Buying new clothes
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Buying-New-Clothes/378502554378?ref=ts
--

Where you are buying/shopping:

Publix (it's a grocery store)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Publix/112606232087374?v=stream&ref=ts

Walmart
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Walmart/106242219413347?v=stream&ref=ts

Shopping online
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shopping-online/115278378485131?v=stream&ref=ts

Shopping on EBAY
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shopping-on-Ebay/378318461385?ref=ts
---

Radom:
Censorship
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Censorship/103109396396125?v=stream&ref=ts

Speaking the truth
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Speaking-the-Truth/274245684990?ref=ts

Am I being too paranoid? I don't think so.

2010-04-28T14:34:00.000-07:00

Jason is someone who visited my page today, deleted his own comment and then accused me of doing it lol.

Thank you Jason for making me laugh:) Please read his comments that I received in my e-mail and then I will give my opinion on the points he raised :)

Jason said "And since when does a private company like Facebook have to abide to free speech.. they don't. It's a private business. It can do what it wants with your information."

MY RESPONSE: I feel we have a right to be informed about how and why they are using that information. If they tell us something is private we then have every reason to expect that it is. Millions have had their status updates show up "global related" without them realizing it. The purpose of sites like mine is to make people aware of Facebook's latest changes so they can restrict/update their privacy preferences.
---
Jason said: "And what you think if you post any bad about Obama ANYWHERE on the internet it isn't looked upon. They don't need Facebook to find your opinions. If you're on the internet then everything you put on here is available no matter if it's through facebook or google or blogspot.... "

MY RESPONSE: I personally have not posted anything "bad" about anyone lol but yes of course I know certain words and word combinations get the attention of government agencies BUT they (govt. agencies) are not posting what we type into community pages that other people can see :)
---
Jason said " I like how I posted my opinion on here but it "magically" disappeared. You tout free speech but when I don't agree with you, you remove my post" & then you said "You people are morons. You bitch about this on Facebook but I had to tell you who I was to post on here. Could I not post anonymous? Right.... morons"

MY RESPONSE: You deleted both of your posts not me :) I think it's clear who is a moron lol :) Jason you are so worried about YOUR online privacy that you are upset that you had no option to post anonymously? I suppose that's why you deleted your posts :)

A few questions and answers about Facebook's new community pages

2010-04-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

Q. Is there really a community page for almost anything and how do I end up on one?

A. Yes! there is a community page for almost everything even for "wishing on stars" http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Wishing-on-Stars/374211402871?ref=ts . There are two ways to end up on community pages. One way is by what you have listed on your profile. If you have "wishing on stars" in your profile under activities or interests (after your profile becomes "connected" ) you will show up as a "Like" to everyone unless you have a restricted profile. The second way is by what you type in your status and with the links you post. If you mention "wishing on stars" in your status or write about "wishing on stars" before a posted link it will go to the community group by that name but if in "related posts" your posts are only in "Friend Related" they should only be viewable by friends.
--

Q. What's the difference between "Friend Related" and "Global Related"?

A. If your posts only show up in "Friend Related" only your Facebook friends should be able to see them. "Global Related" means visible to everyone.
--

Q. Why should I care about this?

A. Even if all your settings are private, Facebook has let us know they are keep track of everything we do and the information they are gathering is especially valuable for companies, politicians and anyone who wants to know what you or the public LIKES and talks about.

If you type "Old Navy" your post might end up here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Old-Navy/378399934558?v=stream&ref=ts

If you type "health care reform" your post might end up here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Health-Care-Reform/111228338905081?v=stream&ref=ts

If you are a UCLA student and type in your Facebook status " Miss ____ is by far the worst teacher at UCLA!" It could end up here : http://www.facebook.com/pages/UCLA/108030485897951?ref=ts

If you had a bad day at work and type in your Facebook status "My stupid boss at Macys is such a wanker" (sorry for the bad word) your post might show up in the "my stupid boss" page http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Stupid-Boss/104320036266125?ref=ts "Macys" page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Macys/375902499109?v=stream&ref=ts or the "wanker" page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wanker/108381425852460?v=stream&ref=ts
----

Q. What can I do about this?

A. Carefully check your privacy sections. It will change and look different with different options after your profile has become "connected". Make sure your friends know to do this as well. If you have children especially teens and college aged kids please urge them to be careful with their privacy settings and what they post. There are community groups for many universities and even many high schools. If you are extremely concerned about these things you can always delete your account and I am considering that option but for now I am just trying to figure all this out :)

***If you have more questions please ask in the comments section below and I will try to answer ASAP :)

New Profiles Have New Privacy Controls

2010-04-27T13:13:00.000-07:00

Just when we think we've gotten the hang of controlling our privacy settings they change again. After your Facebook profile transforms into a new one (see the post below) please make sure your revisit your privacy settings to keep what you want private. You will notice :

Personal Information and Posts (please also set your privacy prefrences here)
&
Friends, Tags and Connections

Please go to Friends, Tages and Connections. You will see on top of the page: "These settings only control the information people can see on your profile. This information, such as your Pages and list of friends, is still public, so it could appear elsewhere on the site and be accessed by applications you and your friends use"

Now set your privacy prefrences on each listed catagory.
Notice the last one : Things I Like: Music, Movies, Books, Television

***** If you set your prefrences properly you will not show up to strangers as a "Like" in a community page***** If you have set your privacy prefrences to friends only then of course they can see you :)

Now your profile "likes and interests" MIGHT make you a fan on Facebook's New Community Pages without your permission!

2010-04-26T22:13:00.000-07:00

My Facebook profile has yet to be "transformed" so I had to find someone else's profile to illustrate. Over the next coming days you should start to notice these changes on your profile and your friend's profiles.

First let's look at an old Facebook profile

Now a new transformed profile (I did the highlighting)

Almost EVERY link on this persons page has become a community page without them knowing! Here are just a few of those pages Facebook generated from this and other profiles who also had some of the same likes and interests

Being a Nerd

Staring Off Into Space

Looking Fashionable

And Saving Animals

If you look at the profiles of some of the people who LIKE what seem to be off the wall or strangely named community groups you will most likely see these community names in their profiles! For example:

changing dirty diapers (some listed in their profile under activities)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Changing-Dirty-Diapers/373532393369?ref=ts

Any Movie that Makes me Laugh (people listed this in the movies section of their profile) http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Any-Movie-That-Makes-Me-Laugh/360781769893

** I am not yet sure if you have a private profile, if it makes you show up as a LIKE-er in a community group but I will be investigating and let you know :)

UPDATED on April 27, 2010 :) It appears you will NOT show up as a LIKE-er if you have set your profile settings properly after you have a NEW profile! Please see the post above for an explanation on how to do that :)

Another way to unknowingly end up in Facebook's community pages

2010-04-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

If you write anything before a posted link you post on Facebook now what you wrote and posted might end up in Facebook's new community page. I posted this on my profile):

I wrote : " A car carrying an Afghan national police
officer and three teenagers was blasted with machine gun fire by
NATO troops on Monday, allegedly because it came “too close” to a
convoy traveling along a highway in the eastern province of Khost.
All four occupants were killed. " and then attached the link to the story and posted this on my profile.

I have no idea how many Facebook community groups my post magically appeared in but I found at least three :

Khost
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Khost/105659299467975?v=stream&ref=ts

Afghan National Police
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Afghan-National-Police/108218792535044?v=stream&ref=ts

machine gun
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Machine-Gun/107955442565644?v=stream&ref=ts

I'm not saying Facebook is spying on anyone for political reasons but no doubt they ARE spying on us and learning things about us we might not want Facebook to know let alone post as a "related global post". I have my privacy set to everyone to illustrate how posts are being listed as "Related Global Posts" if you have your settings to friends only your posts SHOULD only be visible by your friends in the "Related Posts by friends" section of the community pages.

These community pages are a scary invasion of privacy and most Facebook users are still unaware of their existence. Please share this info with your friends.

Soon almost every town, band, book, store, hobby and food will be a community page

2010-04-25T00:16:00.000-07:00

Facebook is slowly rolling this out, creating more and more community pages and asking facebook users to help create these pages. One way community pages will be used is in member profiles. If you are from Dayton, Ohio or Kabul, Afghanistan people who can view your profile can click on the link and go to the community page by that name. These community pages will also be for hobbies such as cooking and dancing and again clicking on the link will take you to a community page. Let's say you work at Wal-mart or Macy's and you have that listed in your profile and you have your favorite books and movies listed.......most if not all will soon be linked to community pages. So basically EVERYTHING about you and EVERYTHING you post Facebook is hoping to link to a community page. Facebook is exploiting our personal information more and more and is trying to be ALL over the internet so unless it's millions of users rebel there will be no stopping them! Privacy (which also has a community page lol) as we once knew will be dead. There WAS life before Facebook came along. It may be time to permanently delete our accounts and go back to social networking the way it was meant to be FACE TO FACE :)

I'd like to recommend this article to everyone: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-20003185-256.html

What you say now on Facebook can go to community groups without your permission!

2010-04-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

Now if you use certain words on Facebook like President Obama, CIA, FBI, socialism, democracy, communism, torture, Islamic terrorism or guns (just a few examples.There are countless more) in your status or posts they are automatically posted in Facebook's new community pages! Scary isn't it?

Here is a list of just a few :

Type "President Obama" in your status or posted link and it ends up posted here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/President-Obama/101881149853311?v=stream&ref=ts

Type "CIA" in your status or posted link and it ends up posted here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/CIA/114580618553006?v=stream&ref=ts

Type "FBI" in your status or posted link and it ends up posted here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FBI/109596699068116?v=stream&ref=ts

Type "guns" in your status or posted link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Guns/378448970964?v=stream&ref=ts

Type "cooking" in your status or posted link and it ends up posted here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cooking/113970468613229?v=stream&ref=ts

Type "sleeping" in your status or posted link and it ends up posted here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sleeping/102168219824412?v=stream&ref=ts

Type: communism
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Communism/107686605921444?v=stream&ref=ts... See More

Type: Islamic terrorism
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Islamic-terrorism/108166965878285?v=stream&ref=ts

Type: socialism
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Socialism/103794206325342?v=stream&ref=ts

Type: democracy
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Democracy/107576895938927?v=stream&ref=ts

Type: torture
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Democracy/107576895938927?v=stream&ref=ts

Type: my stupid boss
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Stupid-Boss/104320036266125?ref=ts

These are just a few.....there are countless more community pages

As an experiment I typed in the words : This is a test: If you say you hate President Obama on Facebook you can be sure the CIA and FBI have a record of it!

The results can be found below (click on post to see entire image) :

my posting on my profile:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Taken without my permission and posted on the following community pages:

President Obama

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

FBI

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

CIA

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

**** Unless your Privacy settings are set to FRIENDS ONLY all your posts can now be posted GLOBALLY!

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

***If your posts show up as Related Posts by Friends they should only be seen by your friends. If they show up as Related Global Posts they are visible to everyone and if you don't want that you must change your privacy settings.