I was just reading an article on Mashable about a Facebook feature I think every FB user needs to be aware of, before you seriously embarrass yourself or your mother. (My mom is on Facebook, isn’t yours?)

The feature I am talking about was unveiled at the f8 conference. Whether you watched it or not, you may not be aware of Facebook’s auto-sharing feature or “Gestures” as they are calling it.

Basically, instead of having to click “Like” on everything, you just need to click “Add to Timeline” on the website your are visiting or the app you downloaded. This gives the app permission to share your activity on Facebook. Sure, that may not sound all that bad, but it can be.

Let’s say you’ve allowed a website to share everything you have read and you, um, forget. We’ve all read things (haven’t we?) that we didn’t want shared with the world wide web. For a list of amusing articles some of Mashable’s Pete Cashmore’s FB friends read, that were then shared on Facebook, read his article here.

What’s the moral of this story and what can you do to protect your privacy now that Facebook’s “Gestures” have entered the picture? Just know that everytime you click “Add to Timeline” on a website or app, every single thing you read will appear on your Facebook Timeline.

There are steps to take. We just need to educate ourselves on them. There are some good resources out there and I’ve listed a few on this Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook feature.

What do you think of Facebook’s “Add to Timeline” feature and have you seen anything embarrassing from your FB friends?