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Top 5 Posts on Protecting Your Privacy on Facebook

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With the announcement of the new Facebook Timeline came a lot of grunts, groans and privacy concerns.

The new Timeline is all about sharing your life story, which means having it all out there on display.

But what if you don’t want to share your life story? What if you’ve been using Facebook for a long time and you’d rather not let your new boyfriend see all of these pictures of your old boyfriend front and center in your “life story”?

Or let’s say you’re a dude and you don’t want your friends knowing you just listened to Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” 5 times in a row. (Hey, I hear ya. It’s a catchy tune.)

There are ways with the slew of new Facebook features to take control of your privacy and make sure you’re not sharing things you’d rather keep to yourself, or the things you were glad to see buried within your years on Facebook.

Here are 5 posts on protecting your Facebook privacy:

1) The New Facebook: How to Take Control of Your Privacy (Mashable) – Sarah Kessler walks you through an in depth look at three of the new Facebook privacy concerns and how to opt out of them.

2) Get Started with the new Facebok Timeline (cnet) – Here are some ways to tweak your timeline to your own liking, as well as info on the new maps feature.

3) Geek Tip: Keep Spotify From Sharing Your Musical Guilty Pleasures on Facebook (PCWorld) – So, you’d rather not let all of your Facebook friends know you just jammed out to the Jonas Brothers via Spotify? There is a workaround that..for now.

4) Facebook Changes: A Complete Guide – Free Webinar September 30 (Mari Smith) – No, this isn’t a blog post but a webinar by Facebook guru Mari Smith. She’ll cover the privacy settings you need to know about and how to adjust them. Click the link to sign up.

5) 9 Critical Ways To Protect Your Privacy On The New Facebook (Business Insider) -This is a quick look at the share settings, the new friends list, the subscribe button and more.

Did you write a post on Facebook privacy or know of a good one not listed above? Please share the link in the comments section. Also, let me know your thoughts on the new Facebook privacy concerns.

Bloggers, Are You Ready to Air Your Dirty Laundry?

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Last week, the awesome Kirsten Wright asked me to post on her blog about blogging under a pen name. It’s a topic I covered here on the BlogWorld blog too, in a post about the pros and cons of blogging anonymously. It certainly is a controversial topic, but I think one of the most important points (and one that I don’t want to be lost in the shuffle of the conversation) is this: You shouldn’t blog anonymously if you’re afraid of someday being exposed.

Because you probably will be. Simple as that. Nothing lasts forever, and no matter how careful you are to hide your identity, if you have any amount of success, curious readers and malicious trolls alike will try to figure out your true identity.

But what about if you’re not writing under a pen name? You probably still have stuff you want to keep private, right? Well, I’m beginning to believe that this is less and less possible.

It’s one of the things we often fail to consider at the start of a blogging career. If you are successful, people will want to know personal information about you, either because they’re a curious fan or because they want to use that information against you. And we all have dirty laundry. No matter how careful you are to separate your online life and personal life, if you aren’t comfortable with these facts coming out, you might be in the wrong career field.

I do believe that everyone should have a right to privacy. Just because you should have something doesn’t mean you do have it, though. A good example – celebrities. It may not be right that paparazzi stand outside your favorite movie star’s house day and night, but at the same time, when those pictures are posted, a lot of us are curious enough to look at them. When there’s a scandal with our favorite musician, we read about it. When our favorite television stars start dating, we want to know. As a culture, we don’t give celebrities much privacy.

And they know that. When someone makes the choice to become a musician or actor, they know that if they are successful, they’re going to have to deal with lack of privacy. You can’t get mad when fans want to know every little detail about you. That was the point, after all, wasn’t it? To have fans?

Blogging is the same way. Bloggers might not be celebrities in a traditional sense, but most of us have at least one or two readers who would consider themselves true fans. Popular bloggers have droves of fans. Have you ever tried to watch someone like Darren Rowse walk down the hall at BlogWorld? I think it takes him about an hour to go 20 feet because he’s stopped every two seconds to talk to another fan. It’s actually pretty amusing to watch (though I think Darren and most successful bloggers don’t mind as long meeting people as they aren’t in a hurry to be somewhere).

Is it right that people dig into your personal life? No way. But it is going to happen whether it is right or wrong. If someone posts information that puts you in danger, you can stop them by going to the police, but most of the time, there’s not much you can do to make people stop talking about you and anyone close to you. It’s something you really need to understand and think about before you start building your blog and your online brand.

So bloggers, I ask you this: Are you ready to air your dirty laundry? Have you ever had someone post information about you that you thought was an invasion of privacy? Do you think it is possible to keep secrets and still be wildly successful as a blogger?

22 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Online Privacy

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Brilliant Bloggers is a weekly series here at BlogWorld where we look at the best posts from around the web all surrounding a specific topic. Every week, we’ll feature three of the most brilliant bloggers out there, along with a huge link of more resources where you can learn about the topic. You can see more Brilliant Blogger posts or learn how to submit your link for an upcoming edition here.

This Week’s Topic: Online Privacy

As bloggers, we’re so used to putting our lives online that we often don’t stop to think about the implications. This can be a problem – or even dangerous. Thieves have been known to plan break-ins with location-based social media, Facebook is commonly perused to collect identity information, and contact information on your blog can give angry readers or obsessed fans your home address and phone number.

I don’t say all of this to scare you – just to, hopefully, make you pause and really consider exactly what information you want to put online. You don’t have to blog anonymously (though this is certainly an option), but it pays to take a few precautions, at least for some people. It really depends on your lifestyle, the type of blog you run, and your personal level of comfort with making your information public. Let’s take a look at what some brilliant bloggers have to say about online privacy.

Advice from Brilliant Bloggers:

Born to Blog: Privacy in the Age of the Mom Blogger by Eliza

What I like about this post, which was inspired by the movie Catfish, is that it isn’t a list of tips or a bunch of facts – it’s just a real conversation about the privacy issues that bloggers (especially those who are parents) face. After checking out what Eliza has to say about posting pictures and other information about your kids online, you can follow her on Twitter @Doublefab.

What Happened to Patrick? A Few Thoughts About Blogging Anonymously by Ryan Guina

This post is all about one blogger’s decision to blog under a pen name for privacy, and then his decision later to tell everyone his real name and start using that instead. I think Ryan hits on some interesting points, such as transparency and branding, and I liked reading about his personal story about moving from a pen name to his real name. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanguina.

Social Insecurity by Consumer Reports

Usually, here at Brilliant Bloggers, I highlight posts from individuals, not from major publications. This topic is just really, really important, though. Consumer Reports is a publication I trust, and although this report they did on online privacy is about a year old (i.e. ancient in Internet time), it is filled with valuable information and, at times, scary statistics. I recommend that everyone reads this article, just so you can make the more informed decisions possible when posting information online.

Even More Brilliant Advice:

Did I miss your post or a post by someone you know about online privacy? Unintentional! Help me out by leaving a comment below with the link!

Next Week’s Topic: List-Building

I’d love to include a link to your post next week – and if you head to the Brilliant Bloggers Schedule, you can see even more upcoming posts. We all have something to learn from one another, so please don’t be shy! Head to the schedule today to learn how to submit your post so I won’t miss it.

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