Like it or not, opt-out or not, Facebook will deliver a social web.

I have my Facebook account locked down fairly well with very few details open to the public (my website and Email) and I of course followed my own instructions on how to properly opt out of Facebook’s “Instant Personalization” settings. Or so I thought.

Even though I have opted out and set up restrictive privacy settings as seen to the left, visiting http://www.facebook.com/cormyn will allow you to view my entire friend’s list, and show you all products, apps, music and games that I am a fan of, or have selected that I like. Honestly, I could care less that the world can see that I like Jason Mraz or Sara Bareilles, they’re both excellent musicians. And I’m certain that nobody is going to lose any sleep knowing that I’m a die-hard Dr Pepper fan or that I play some of Zynga’s games on Facebook.

However, despite my efforts to follow Facebook’s instructions to opt out of Instant Personalization, I visited CNN.com this morning to read a news article about a tweet I read a few minutes ago, and saw the following:

Upon clicking an article, I also saw this at the top right of the screen and also at the bottom of the article I was reading:

This is definitely something that concerns me. Not only is the front page of CNN showing me messages about one of my Facebook friends, it’s also aware of the fact that none of my 300-something friends on Facebook have “recommended” the article on their Facebook pages, and suggests I get the scoop and be the first of my friends to do so.

Seriously, Facebook? I’ve opted out, I’ve blocked the three partner sites, yet there are still other sites out there, implementing your “like” button for your grandiose “social web” scheme, and my information and web browsing will be made known to you just because I happen to be logged into Facebook?

That’s right, folks: as soon as I’ve logged out of Facebook, CNN fails to show any of the text/graphics which I show in the screenshots above.

I will admit, the web developer in me is amazed because I know the effort and technology that goes into building something like this. At the same time, if the only way I can NOT see this information is to log out of Facebook, then perhaps I will reserve a separate browser for my Facebook activity, and use my primary browser choice (Google Chrome) for the rest of the web.

Either that, or I need to see if AdBlock has a rule implemented that blocks Facebook’s iframe on every other web site. That’d be convenient.

facebook, privacy, security

To recap my “social web is not a private web” article, Facebook’s F8 platform will begin to create a massive social web for which you have already given them permission to share your public info.

Be warned though that even if you do take some of the following steps to opt-out, your friends might still be able to share some of your public information (Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages) without your consent as these ‘partner’ sites will have access to your friend’s contact list which can contain public pieces of information about you.

To help protect yourself, here are some links at Facebook that can help you opt out of as much of this F8 platform as you can:

1. http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy#!/settings/?tab=privacy&section=applications

You’ll notice a new check box at the bottom called “Instant Personalization” which is enabled — this was Facebook’s way of forcing you to opt into their f8 platform without asking you first.
Recommendation: un-select the “Instant Personalization” checkbox.

2. http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy#!/settings/?tab=privacy&section=applications&field=friends_share

This first link will let you control which pieces of your profile data can be shared by your friends.
Recommendation: turn them all off.

This is where you can see who has access to various pieces of information you store on Facebook.
Recommendation: set everything to “Only Friends”.

4. http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy#!/settings/?tab=privacy&section=contact

This is where you select who can access the contact information you store on Facebook.
Recommendation: Lock this area down unless there’s information here that you truly want to be publicly available such as an IM screen name for your friends to find. I have contact information that I only make available to family (cell phone, etc) so I have a contact group set up, and give them permission to certain pieces of info that wouldn’t be shown even to “only friends.” I let my web site, iandouglas.com, be available to ‘everyone’.

5. Block the partner apps you don’t want your information given to. Each of these three links will have a “Block Application” link on the left menu of the page.
Recommendation: block these apps unless you want these partners to have your data.

Microsoft Docs.com: http://www.facebook.com/docs
Pandora: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=139475280761
Yelp: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=97534753161

Once you block them, you can verify they’re listed here: http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=privacy#!/settings/?tab=privacy&section=applications&field=blocked_apps

facebook, privacy, security

quick and simple: edit /etc/hosts
(or on Windows machines: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts)
and add the following:

0.0.0.0 www.facebook.com facebook.com apps.facebook.com
0.0.0.0 www.myspace.com myspace.com
0.0.0.0 www.digg.com digg.com

etc. Add as many sites as you want. When you want to stop being productive at work, simply comment out those lines (like during a lunch break). Just be sure to uncomment the lines when you need to be productive again…

facebook, productivity