Feel free to LIKE and/or SHARE to help spread the word. #2 may be particular interest to most. The more you and your friends stop/prevent, the less ads you may be forced to see from big spy brother Facebook. Enjoy! If you missed the news, Facebook was recently valued at $201.6 billion. Thats enough to slip it in at number 22 on the list of the largest companies in the world. Most of that value comes from ads, and to attract advertisers, Facebook sells them your information. It also adds features that annoy you, but play well with the ad companies. If you hear people insisting Facebook doesnt care about your privacy or experience, thats why. In defense of Facebook, some features are ones youd actually want to use — click here to learn 10 of them. Plus, it does give you the option to tip the balance of privacy back in your favor, if you know where to look. Here are five features you want to change. 1. Autoplaying videos Scrolling through your Facebook news feed is starting to feel a little too helpful. Instead of having to click on a video, Facebook now automatically plays them hoping to attract your attention. Well I, for one, prefer to actually click on the thing that I want to watch. Luckily, turning this feature off isnt as hard as youd think. First, click the arrow on the far-right of the screen. Then click the Settings button. You should see a variety of options. Click the Videos link in the left column. From there, click the drop-down next to Auto-Play Videos and set it to Off. Now sit back, relax and enjoy a news feed without nearly as much video clutter. 2. Clear searches How much searching do you do looking up old flames, classmates, business associates and long lost relatives on Facebook? Whatever it is, Im sure you wont be surprised to learn that Facebook saves all your searches. Anyone who gets access to your account can see them. Fortunately, Facebook lets you clear your search history. Getting there is going to take a little bit of work, though, so stick with me. First, in your profile click the down arrow in the upper right corner and then the Settings option to navigate to your settings page. Now, click the Privacy tab on the left-hand menu. Finally, under Who can see my stuff? click Use Activity Log to get to where Facebook hides all of the data that its been tracking since day one. When you first open your activity log, the Search option should be hidden. There should be a More option somewhere under the tab listings that start with Photos. Click that, and youll see all of your options. From there, click Search and you should see every single Facebook search that youve ever made. From there, simply click the Clear Searches link at the top of your screen and your search history will be gone permanently. You may also want to look around your activity log in general for any other information you dont want to be sitting around in your Facebook account forever. 3. Privacy settings When you post something to Facebook, you probably dont want all 1 billion users to see it. That means you need to get your post privacy settings right the first time. First, navigate to your settings page again by clicking the upside-down triangle in the upper-right corner of your profile and then the Settings button. Now click the Privacy tab on the left, and you should see a bunch of options. Clicking the Edit button will give you a drop-down menu where you can select the options which best suit your needs. In most cases, youll want to change the settings to Friends or turn it off. 4. Unwanted notifications If youre hearing more notification sounds than ever before, thats because Facebook has added more things to notify you about. You can get rid of the notification sounds with this helpful tip. If you dont want to hear certain notifications anymore, then read on. Get on over to the settings screen again by clicking the upside-down triangle in the upper-right corner of the screen and then the Settings button. From there, click the Notifications tab on the left and you should see a list of every possible notification you could be receiving. Start by choosing how you get notified. Turning off sounds is a good start. For what events trigger notifications, Id recommend turning off Tags and also any groups that you dont care about. Every time anyone tags you in a post, youll be notified and that can get annoying. You might want to turn on the Birthdays option if you want to keep up to date on who needs some well-wishes. Not every Facebook feature is annoying. In fact, some are downright useful, if you know theyre there. Here are five hidden Facebook features you should be using. 5. Social advertising Facebooks stock value is based heavily on the fact that advertisers can show you what your friends are buying. You might be surprised to know that Facebook lets you opt out of these posts. Back to the settings page! You know the drill. In your profile, click the upside-down triangle in the upper-right corner and then the Settings button. Click on the Ads tab. The two options here are easy to switch and very powerful. For each one, click the Edit button and then No one instead of Friends. Thats not hard, but before I sign off let me just give you a quick explanation of what Ads and Friends is really about. Facebook claims that it doesnt sell your information to advertisers, but what it does do is put you in a group that the advertiser can browse. If you and a friend share a hobby, then Facebook will take note of that. If you mention a product or company advertising on Facebook, it will probably put it next to an advertisement that your friend will see. Its basically a testimonial, but not one you might want to make.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 04:45:40 +0000
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