I know why you joined Facebook: to share everything with everyone. Well, good news—this week, Facebook adds a new level of privacy access: everyone.
The new “Everyone” level is in addition to previous levels of “Only Friends,” “Friends of Friends” and “My Networks and Friends.” You still have the option to customize who can and can’t see your profile information, too, as well as selecting exactly what categories of profile information “Everyone” can see.
Facebook explains the benefits of this feature:
By changing your Profile setting to “Everyone”, anyone who finds you through a search on Facebook or sees a post or comment you make can now click on your content and view the elements of your profile you’ve opted to make open. While some special rules remain in place about who can see your profile if you are a minor, people generally won’t need to be friends with you or share a common network in order to view your content if you choose the new “Everyone” setting.
In the past, searching for friends you haven’t seen in a while or someone who has a common name may have been difficult. You may have only been able to see their search listing and a small thumbnail version of a photo, if that. With this change, people can use the “Everyone” option and make it easier for you to find and connect to all the people you know.
I’m pretty sure you still have to be logged in to be able to see someone’s profile set to “Everyone,” and the public search results listing setting they already have will remain the same.
Almost a year ago, less than half of Facebook users were willing to share their profile with current or prospective employers, but we all know our bosses (or potential bosses) are checking us out online these days. Perhaps this level of access is a good place to create a “sanitized” version of your FB profile—one without access to your pictures or status updates, perhaps only with stuff you’d put on your résumé. Or is that what LinkedIn is for?
Will you be changing your info to give “Everyone” access? If so, what will you let “Everyone” see—and what will you keep hidden?
