You’re Wrong

There’s a lot of misinformation, falsehood, and panic tearing around Facebook right now about Facebook Places.

Here’s the FACTS:

• Places is not an attempt by big brother to spy on you (that’s what foursquare and gowalla and yelp are for).

• You can not be identified when you don’t want to be.

• Facebook does not share your location information without your consent.

Places works like this:
In order for someone to be identified in a location, they must either actually check in with FB Places on their mobile device (ie- iPhone), or they must be tagged by someone that has checked in with FB Places on their mobile device.

For example: I go to Starbucks and check in with FB Places, while checking in I mention that I’ve seen (@)Your Name there.

I’ve tagged You at the Starbucks and your account would identify it as such, based on your Privacy Settings for Places.

If you want to check and/or change your settings for Places, do this:

1. Log in to your Facebook account.
2. Select: Account-Privacy Settings
3. Click: Customize settings
4. Choose: Everyone-Friends of Friends-Friends Only-Customize (if you choose Customize, a pop-up window helps you whittle down the choices further)
5. Click: SAVE CHANGES
6. Share this post with your manic friends and apologize for pouring gas on the fire.

If you ever wonder if something is legit in our internet-rumor-filled-world, just go to Snopes.com and check it out. Snopes is dedicated to separating fact from fiction, reality from rumor- and they do an amazing job at it.